The Videogamer's New Life
by Hylia of Hyrule
Summary: A young lady gets sucked into Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and completely changes the game. One of her friends is also sucked into the game, though she never recognizes him. Together with Link, these quirky heroes save Hyrule.
1. Chapter 1 Look Ma! I'm A Video Game!

**The Videogamer's New Life**

_**Chapter 1, "Look Ma'! I'm a video game!"**_

Now, how to begin my story? "Once upon a time..." No, no, way too Brothers Grimm. "I was once..." No, too much like how all my stories start. Hmm, how about, "There was a time, once, when I wasn't a Hylian." Hmm, I like that.

There was a time, once, when I wasn't a Hylian. I was originally a Californian; just your average, everyday, normal human being. Not a hero. I was born Lucile Spellman, your typical, everyday child. No powers, no swordsmanship, no Fairy Bow, no Silver Gauntlets.

I was just a video game fanatic.

But one day all that changed, and my whole world was turned upside down.

I'd been playing The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time and I was just about to beat the game. Screen went white to go to the credits, before I beat it, and without any prior warning, my whole body went numb and I was unable to move, the most I could do was blink and breathe. The feeling was absolutely terrifying.

The white on the screen pulsed, and grew in small, steady increments, and eventually enveloped the room, taking everything I knew away. Soon the white excruciatingly slowly faded to black.

After what could have been hours, minutes, or seconds, but felt like eternities, the figure of a man came out of the darkness. He had red, balding hair, a green pallor to his skin, yellow eyes, and an evil aura about him. I held him in the same regard with serial killers and homicidal rapists, not that I could remember why; after a while of standing in front of me, staring menacingly down at me, he faded, laughing disturbingly.

I couldn't remember his name. I knew he was evil, but only because of a feeling in the pit of my stomach, as if I knew him from another life. Now, I know that some people are psychic, and I'm one of them; however, I'm not that psychic. At least, not psychic enough to have comprehensible visions.

I began to know the names of all the enemies: Tektites (red and blue), Re-Deads, Guays, Keese, Skulltullas, Dodongos, Beamos, Wolfos, Gibdos, Wallmasters, Floormasters, Moblins, Like-Likes, Leevers, Bubbles (blue, green, red, and white), Peahats, Poes, Mad Shrubs, Deku Shrubs, Business Shrubs, Iron Knuckles, Stallfos, Stallchilds, (or are they Stallchildren?) Anubises, Armos, Bari, Biri, Dekubabas, etc. As I began to know them, I began to know how to beat them, each in their own turn.

I didn't remember learning any of this, but I knew it anyway.

While in the darkness, I got to thinking.

"What's going to happen to me? How long will this last? What am I doing?" All of this worsened my panic.

The darkness seemed to extend infinitely, or it could have been right in front of my face, blocking my view of whatever outside world could have existed. Time was pulled to a near stop; each second felt like an eon, ticking by slowly, or not ticking by at all. There was a force that I couldn't see making it so I still couldn't move. I was still able to breathe, but even that was an effort. After, I estimated about another hour, my face began to tingle, my ears felt like they were being stretched beyond their limits. It was agonizing, but I couldn't touch them to soothe them. My body felt like it was being more and more compressed, another agonizing sensation. I fell over onto my face, writhing in pain, still unable to move. Forever I lay there, crying in agony. Eventually, I think the Goddess of sleep took mercy on me and temporarily covered me in her sweet blanket of balm that eased my pain.

When I awoke, I was on my back, and I could see light. After my long bout in the darkness, the light was a beautiful agony, allowing me to feel both its healing effects, and the burn of spending far too long basking in its glow. This mixture of pleasure and pain was soon interrupted by a rather annoying wake-up call. Someone or something was repeatedly poking me in the face.

"Stoppit..! I don't wanna wake up," I mumbled in a raspy voice, attempting to roll over.

"Hey, she's alive!" said a whiskey, soft, rather pleasant-sounding, young man's voice.

"Yes, Link, she's alive. She was breathing when you were poking her," A trenchant fairy's voice replied.

I still had my eyes shut; the light pierced them. Eventually I worked up the gumption to open them. They stung for a second, but only that second. Once my eyes had adjusted, I noticed the young man was standing over me.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

He was no more than ten; he was wearing a green tunic, brown and yellow leather boots, a wooden shield, and an eleven-inch sword on his back. He had a backpack on under the shield, which made him look kind of funny. He had pointed ears, blue eyes, and a soft expression on his rather cute face. I thought he was cute, but it was possible that the darkness rattled my brains a bit.

"Are you okay?" he repeated, holding out his hand

I took it, and he helped me stand up.

After a few seconds' hesitation, I replied "Yeah, but I've got a migraine."

I looked around me; I was in a forest of some kind. It was very green, and there was rather annoying music playing somewhere in the distance. It began with three notes, repeated them twice, and then went into a full song. I thought I recognized it, but I wasn't sure why or from where.

"Where am I?" I asked, looking at the blond young man.

"You're in the Lost Woods," replied the fairy.

I turned my gaze to her; she was a little ball of blue light with wings, and she was following the young man who, I guessed, was Link.

"What's your name? I'm Link," said Link "And this is Navi." He gestured to the ball of light.

Well, this was not good. I wasn't Hylian and I didn't have a Hylian name. I figured I had to come up with one as quickly as I could. I could feel a name nagging at the back of my mind. "Hylia" the name sounded like, and the picture of a lake popped into my head, so I took Hylia as my nom de plume, thinking I would take it from the lake I knew was not too far off, to revere it in a way.

"I'm Hylia, and... what am I doing here? I - can't remember much,"

My voice, I noticed after clearing my throat, was a little high, and it sounded like a kid's voice. A kid no older than... well, ten. I measured myself up to Link, I was about the same height, so I estimated my age to be about the same as his. I guessed that made me ten. Resting my left hand on my right arm, I took notice that it was wet and warm and sticky...

"You're bleeding!" cried the fairy, Navi, indicating my arm

I looked down at my arm, and sure enough, I was.

"Oh, will you look at that," I said, rubbing the blood off on my own tunic... No... dress.

There was a Hylian-lettering number 10 cut into the flesh on my arm, and it was bleeding profusely.

"Are you all right?" Link gasped, his eyes locked onto the blood covering my right arm.

"Yeah," I replied, pointing to the blood "I did this years ago. I wonder how it started bleeding again..? I ran into a barbed-wire fence a long time ago, and now look at it."

In fact, I'd been riding a horse, something spooked it, and it bucked me off onto the barbed wire fence. The worst of my injuries had been my right arm and my left hand, which I wasn't completely able to clench into a fist any more. My arm had healed just fine, despite the deep gash. But here it was again...

I examined the rest of my body, looking for something to maybe make a tourniquet with; I was wearing a green tube-top dress, not much help there; brown and yellow leather boots, just like Link, so no help there either; and not much else. Fat lot of good that did me. I examined my hair, it was long and blond, in a ponytail covered by a green handkerchief. That would do quite nicely, so I took that off and wrapped it around my arm and tightened it with my teeth, making a double knot to hold it on.

All this time, Link was watching me with a mixture of curiosity and bewilderment. His blue eyes shone with the sparkle of an ever information-hungry mind and an insatiable curiosity.

"Where did you come from?" Link asked me during my long full-body examination.

"I can't really remember, I think I bumped my head. How did I get here?"

He thought for a moment and shrugged. He tried to speak, but closed his mouth. He tried again, and repeated the former motion. It seemed a cycle as he repeated the motions again and again.

"I don't really know," He finally explained, "You see, I tripped over you."

That would explain the bruise on my left arm, then. I hoped to God that he didn't break it; I needed my left arm, despite my malfunctioning left hand.

"So, are you going anywhere? I need to get out of here," I said to change the subject and get my mind off my arms, "I have nothing to do here; I still don't even know where I am. I don't know how to get home, after all. Besides that, I don't feel like returning to my empty home."

He put his hand on his chin and began to think. I could almost see a wheel spinning rapidly in his head. I turned my head to giggle at his expense, when Navi piped up with "We were going to Death Mountain see the Gorons; we need the Spiritual Stone of Fire."

"Let me guess," I said, "The Big Brother of the Gorons has the Goron's Ruby, and you can't get it without giving them something."

"Oh, yeah. How did you know that?"

I giggled a little bit and faced him; his smile lit up his whole face.

"I did the math," I said, using air quotes and shrugging, "and that aside, he's the sworn brother of my uncle."

Link looked at me, contemplating what I'd said. I guessed that he'd never heard that phrase before.I rolled my eyes, and waited for link's reply.

"I thought about it," I finally clarified after a long pause, "Since he *is* the sworn brother of my uncle."

"Oh."

If I knew if Navi had eyes to roll, I'm sure she did.

"So," I said, "You're going to Death Mountain. That's near Kakariko, and I have some things I need to get there. Would you mind if I came with you? I'd love to go see it."

Link thought for a moment. His eyes shifted around the woods nervously; his hand rested on his chin, then his hip, then his chin again. He rubbed the back of his head, then glanced around the woods one more time.

"Do you have any form of weapon?" He finally asked, after what looked like painful deliberation.

"Not really. The last thing I remember," I said, then I had another thought,"Oh! I remember! I was down by the lake side, talking to the Scientist!"

Okay, I fibbed.

"You might need one," Navi said, "Link, why don't you loan her your slingshot?"

Link turned and dug in his pack for his slingshot for a few seconds. He handed it to me, along with a bag capable of holding 40 Deku seeds that can be used as bullets, but where was I supposed to put it? If I put it on my belt, I would surely break it, and I would get tired of carrying them...

As I thought this, I noticed a sudden weight on my back, and felt straps appear on my shoulders. I touched them, and realized I had a knapsack. I put the pouch of bullets in my knapsack, but not before I took five out and shot them at a tree. Four perfect bull's eyes in an abandoned owl's nest, and one near miss that ricocheted off and hit me in the face.

"OWH!" I cried, rubbing my lip where the bullet had hit.

Link fell over laughing. This didn't please me in the slightest, so I grabbed the seed off the ground and shot him with it. He wasn't laughing much longer. After I'd taken my turn laughing, we struck a deal; he agreed to take me along as long as I didn't shoot him. I agreed, as long as he didn't laugh at my pain. Agreeing to my terms, Link lead me out of the forest. He stopped a few times to get his bearings, to rub his sore back, and to ask me a few questions about myself. I said I was Zelda's cousin, and lived just outside Hyrule Castle Towne alone in a shack.I also said that my parents lived in the castle as a maid and a waiter so they wouldn't have to find a way to live on their own. I joked that my mom was the waiter and my dad was the maid, but the joke went over Link's head with a whooshing noise. Oh well, it wasn't that great a joke anyway.

I said that I hadn't wanted to work in the castle, so went to live on my own, I had run out of money on the way to Lake Hylia by taking a detour and buying Lon-Lon Milk. I was kind of out of luck when it came to the bottle; I had dropped it in the lake, and would've retrieved it, but I can't dive that deep underwater.

When we were out of the woods, and down a rather steeply sloping hill, we were in Kokiri Forest. We were surrounded by hollowed-out trees that the Kokiri used as houses. I was a little surprised and awed at the craftsmanship of the dead trees, and I wondered how small children such as the Kokiri could have possibly made them. The detail on the roofs, the well-formed doorways, and even the gardens on the sides of the houses. One big house nearest the hill had a rock garden. I was going to guess that the person who lived in that house wasn't too kind a person to just have rocks...

A young lady distracted my train of thought by running up to us.

She greeted Link with a friendly warmth and a sparkle in her eyes.

Turning to me, said, "Oh, who are you? I haven't seen you around here before!"

I smiled politely.

"I'm kind of new here. I'm pretty lost. I have no idea, really, how I got into the woods or your forest in the first place," I replied.

She smiled back nervously.

"Where did you come from?" She asked.

"I'm from just outside Hyrule Castle Towne."

"I've never seen any lodging outside the town," Link said with a suspicious tone to his words, "Do you live in Lon-Lon Ranch?"

"No," I shook my head, "I live behind the Towne in a small shack. Sort of near the Castle, sort of near an alcove where the Great Faerie lives."

Link gave my words careful consideration, his blue eyes sparkling with interest.

"Where is Hyrule Castle Towne?" asked the girl, "I've never been beyond the forest."

I considered for a moment what I was going to say, "It's to the north of here. It's past Hyrule field."

She didn't get to say anything more, because Link was getting antsy. He cleared his throat and grabbed me by the arm. I tried to wiggle free of his grip, but he was too strong. Having no luck, I simply had to go with him.

"Come on Hylia! I thought you wanted to go to Kakariko." Link said.

I would have turned to walk, but Link had me firmly by the arm. I waved a semi-solemn goodbye, and tripped over a root. I rolled back onto my feet and turned to walk with Link through a tunnel.

"Do all Hylian girls talk so much? I thought you wanted to leave." He said, not bothering to look at me

I rolled my eyes, "Oh, give me a break, she started it!" I jokingly whined.

Link chuckled.

The tunnel ended and lead to a bridge. It was spanned between the tunnel we were in and another one on the opposite side of a small valley made by two raised cliffs. The trees were becoming fewer, and the leaves were changing color, so, I guessed it was either becoming late in the year or the trees lacked as much nutrients. We began to cross the bridge and my distraction became stronger. The bridge was made of hemp rope and what seemed to be driftwood, but it was stable enough to carry an adult.

Suddenly, searing pain ripped through arm, excruciating to my bruise and cut. Even through my handkerchief. I screamed in pain and Link turned so fast he made himself dizzy and stumbled.

"Are you okay?" Link nearly yelled with alarm, grabbing the railing.

I ripped off my handkerchief; blood pooled around in a big dent in my arm. I seemed to have a moment as I noticed that something was rolling about my feet. I picked up what looked like a giant walnut and recognized it as a Deku nut. It was round, with yellow protrusions on the sides, like little bumps all the way around it, nearly connected, so I threw it back to the direction it came from. Tying my handkerchief back on, I rubbed the painful spot on my arm.

"Shrub," Said I, quite simply.

"That dent looked pretty bad," Link replied, his voice filled with pure concern.

"I'm okay," I said, raising my hands to prove my point, "I've had worse. You should have seen what happened when I got caught in the fence."

This time, the nut hit me much harder. It collided with my side with such force it knocked me off the right side of the bridge.

"Holy..! HYLIA!" Link yelled.

He ran to the side of the bridge and grabbed the hemp rope, looking as though he were going to jump off.

Now, not only was my arm hurt, but I'd landed on my other side, and had the wind knocked out of me. This pissed me off. I yelled that the son of a bitch asked for it, and jumped to my feet. I ran in the direction the nuts were coming from, not really thinking. When I got there, I saw only plain of tall grass surrounding a bush. I turned to the bridge and gave Link a questioning glance. As I did so, I was hit in the back by another Deku nut. I fell on my face, and rolled out of the way. If this son of a bitch was willing to attack a girl with her back turned, what was to stop it from kicking me whilst I was down? I saw its smug grin as I guarded myself from another attack. It didn't have much in the way of a face, but it seemed smug anyway.

It spat yet another nut at me, but I kept my arms in front of my face. I felt a small crack in my left arm as the nut bounced off painfully, and hit the shrub. I heard Link hit the ground as he jumped off the bridge, and he ran to my side as fast as he could.

"Are you okay?" He panted.


	2. Chapter 2 Warriors Revealed

**Chapter 2 **

_**"Warriors Revealed"**_

"Yeah," I replied, "I'm fine. The nut bounced off my arm."

He helped me up; the crack in my arm ached painfully and twinged when I pulled on his hand. He looked at me with a mixture of concern and confusion, he didn't let go of my hand as he checked my arm where the nut bounced off.

"Prick," I mumbled under my breath.

"Excuse me?" Link asked offended.

"The business shrub. Didn't mean you; he nearly killed me!" I hastily clarified.

The shrub stood not seven feet away from us, crossing its arms in front of what would be a genital area, except, I'm pretty sure plants don't have genitals. It rocked from foot to foot, shivering from its sudden uproot into the crisp Autumnal air.

"Spare me, little girl! Please! I'm sorry for attacking you!" It said.

Like hell it was. On what little of a face it had, the stupid bastard still looked smug. In fact, the little prick looked so smug for a plant, that it appeared to be PLEASED that it'd managed to attack and piss off a little girl. I let it know this through the best glare I could muster.

"I'll sell you a shield if you spare me, little girl!" It added hastily.

If Link wasn't standing next to me with his hand on my shoulder to keep me from moving, I would've killed it right then and there. It had just done two things that pissed me off: called me little girl, and attempted to brown-nose his way out of a sticky situation. Why the gutless, yellow bastard, I was about to lunge at it and strangle it until it was past purple, when...

"Yeah, how much is it?" Link said.

I stared at Link incredulously. Was he really letting the damned thing just sell its way out of an ass-beating?

"Forty Rupees," The Deku shrub replied, eyeing me nervously

It was then that I noticed the ache in my left foot that felt like small, sharp pebbles being pressed into my flesh with the force of a thousand boulders. Okay, so maybe that was an exaggeration, but the feeling persisted until I was forced to take my boot off. I tipped it upside down and four small crystalline objects fell onto the grass. Luckily, the grass was shorter here, so I didn't lose any of these small things. They were rupees, and I had three green ones, and one blue. All in all, I had eight rupees. I wasn't quite sure how I learned this, but, it was okay with me, since I liked money. Who doesn't? But I checked my other shoe to find no more money, and that's a problem even if you don't really have to buy something.

"Uh-oh" I said, "this is all I've got. Could I buy it later?"

Link shook his head, "I'll pay for it," He told the deku shrub.

Humiliated, I looked at Link, but he wasn't paying attention to me, he was looking at the shrub. If I looked at the shrub, I would likely kill it, so I looked elsewhere. There wasn't much to look at, really: some dead trees, some live trees blocking my view of Hyrule Field, that bloody Business Shrub, Link, the grass the sky, a rock, the cliff walls, so I finally settled on looking at my boots and focusing on putting my left one back on. I sat down on the ground and adjusted my sock. That was good, at least I was wearing socks, even if they itched. I put my leather boot back on, and Link still wasn't done haggling with the bush, so I lied down on my stomach and rested my chin in my right hand. Watching Link's back, my eyes grew heavy.

The next thing I knew, Link was tapping my newly-bought deku shield against my head and trying to shake me at the same time.

"Hylia, wake up," He said with his hands on my shoulders, "I think you fell asleep."

I couldn't hold the stupidity from my face.

"Huh?" I asked stupidly.

"You were asleep, weren't you?" He patronized.

"I-I-I-I... No I wasn't," I replied hastily.

Actually, I do remember nodding off, but not going to sleep. While Link and the stupid bush were haggling over the price of the shield so long, I'd found it hard to keep my eyes open. It was possible that I'd fallen asleep, but I wasn't about to admit that to Link.

"May I have my shield now?" I asked innocently.

He rolled his blue eyes. Even though he seemed exasperated, he handed me the newly bought shield. We walked back to the bridge, and had a little problem once we got closer to it.

"Now what do we do, Miss jump-off-the-bridge?" Link asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Hey," I said, trying to defend my pride, "I was pushed. YOU jumped."

I pointed at Link's face, and made poking motions with each word I said.

"I think I've got a solution, anyway," I said, "I'll cup my hands, you step into them, I'll lift you up. You jump onto the bride and pull me up." I held a finger in the air as if it was ingenious.

"Good idea," Link replied, "but how about I lift YOU up?"

"I'm stronger."

"You're a girl. How can a girl be stronger?"

"I'll arm wrestle with you to prove it."

I held up my hand, and Link looked at me like I was from a different planet.

"Just take my hand. I don't have cooties."

"What are cooties?" He asked, and all I could do was roll my eyes.

"JUST... Take my hand. Don't you know how to arm wrestle?"

He did, but he got it wrong the first three times. I corrected him until he didn't seem uncomfortable. He was strong all right, but it seemed we were equally matched. We were sitting at a stump that looked like the tree was larger than a mighty oak, straining and going red in the face. I silently wondered what would happen if one of the Kokiri came up and saw us off the bridge and arm wrestling on something they could use as a dinner table.

Eventually, the arm wrestling got boring, so I devised a strategy to win.

I snapped my fingers in his face.

"I win!" I said, quickly forcing his arm down.

"Hey! That's not fair! You cheated! I want a rematch!" He said in choppy sentences.

"Nope," I replied, sticking my nose in the air, "You lost fair and square. You saw my fingers coming, you could have stopped me. You're just a sore looser."

He was pouting at the fact a girl beat him, but I was still laughing. We walked over to the bridge, and he stepped into my hands so I could lift him up. He grabbed the side of the railing and pulled himself back onto the bridge. I raised my hands in the air, and he grabbed my arms and pulled. It was a team effort to get me up as it's easier to push someone than to pull them up.

I barely got onto the bridge; my foot caught on the rope siding, and I fell on my face.

"Ow," I said with a mouth and nose full of salty-tasting bridge wood.

Link thought this was the funniest thing. I gave him the Italian gesture for good luck, and he helped me back up, for the third time that day, by my middle finger.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, uncertainty playing jokes with his voice.

"You don't want to know if you don't all ready."

I wiped my hands on my dress and looked over the side of the railings. It was somewhat of a miracle that I didn't smack my head on the ground and die from that distance, and it was more of a miracle that we managed to get back up. I let loose with a low whistle.

"Someone needs to put a ladder against this bridge," I said.

The second tunnel lead us out of Kokiri Forest and into Hyrule Field. Well, not yet. It lead to a semi-tunnel formed by more cliffs. At the end of the "road" there was a clearing to Hyrule Field. I took a tentative step forward to begin the adventure that was trying to navigate such a huge open space, but before we could leave, we heard a "hoot, hoot" from above us.

Link rolled his eyes again, and whispered in my ear, "I'm really getting sick of this guy. I think he stalks me."

"Hey Link," the Owl said.

The only thing I could think was "!" and a gasping noise.

The owl then acknowledged me, "And Hylia," he continued speaking, but I didn't hear him.

Promptly after, I found myself hiding behind one of the trees, hugging my knees and hysterically saying "Talking owl knows my name! Talking owl knows my name! TALKING OWL KNOWS MY NAME..!"

Then next thing I knew, I was being shaken, and I had grass in my mouth.

"Hylia, are you okay?" Link asked me, "You've got me worried! First, mindlessly going on like a lunatic, then next passing out. Are you sure you're fit to go to Kakariko?"

"Mm-hmmff," I mumbled with a mouth full of grass and dirt, "I swear. I just... didn't expect a talking owl."

Link helped me to my feet, and I spat some of the gunk out of my mouth, but I couldn't get it all.

We continued onward, Link watching me carefully. Nonetheless, I had a few almost nonchalant questions to ask him.

"How did Keapora Geabora know my name?" I asked, trying not to sound shaken as I was.

"He followed us. How do you know his name?" He replied.

I stuttered for a few minutes.

"I have no idea," I finally managed.

"Okay. That's weird," he said, stopping in his tracks to look at me, his eyebrow cocked.

'You should talk', I thought, 'you're the weird one. Blond-haired, blue-eyed, dress-wearing boy.'

"What?" I said, stopping a few feet away.

"You knew his name, and you don't know how?"

"Yeah..."

"All right..." He said, hesitantly, in a tone that screamed of disbelief.

We had continued walking, me sticking my tongue all the way.

We came upon a patch of bushes and long grass, I noticed something within them.

"Hey look!" I said, walking in the general direction of the glinting object, "A shiny thing in a bush!"

Link rolled his eyes and slapped himself in the forehead. Boy, I must've sounded stupid. I didn't care, though, so I pointed.

"No, really," I repeated, "A shiny thing!"

I fell to all fours, stuck my head in the bush, and acquired the shiny thing: it was a rupee. I pulled my head out of the bush and stood up. I held the rupee up to the sunlight and examined it. The sun brought out its deep amethyst-purple color, that meant it was worth 50 green ones!

I held it up in Link's face, "See? Look! Shiny thing in a bush."

He stared at the rupee.

"How did you notice that?" he gasped.

I tried to repress a laugh, failed, and said, "I saw something shiny. It glinted in my eyes, so of course I'm going to notice."

"Well," he said, "you've got to stop sticking your tongue out, so why don't you use it to buy some milk?"

I nodded, that was a good idea. Even so, I didn't want to part with my new-found treasure, although, truth to be told, I was getting really tired of sticking my tongue out, the air tasted sickly sweet. So I walked passed him, leading the way to Lon-Lon ranch.

The only reason I knew which direction it was in was because of the tall buildings that made up the ranch. Even if you were sixty miles away, you could still find it almost as well as you could Hyrule Castle Towne. Almost. If you looked along the western horizon from Kokiri Forest, you could make out the distinguished shadow of towering castles lining the sky like an oil painting, but if you looked from Hyrule Castle Towne, you couldn't see Lon-Lon Ranch, but you could from the Kokiri Forest. That's the direction I lead us in, that's the way I knew to go, and that's the way I managed to get lost going.

The scenery of Hyrule Field was never very much to look at unless one liked rolling hills with nothing but the false horizon and a few mirages during midday. The breeze was enough to keep us cool, but the sun was enough to make my shoulders burn. The grass was cool against my legs, and frequently would tickle the soft bruise the rail made on my leg, and made me shudder or shiver. Sometimes a grasshopper would startle me so I would shriek, and Link would laugh at me. Lon-Lon ranch now seemed further away than I'd initially thought, and my burning shoulders made the walk nigh miserable. Every now and again, my boots would come loose and fall off, so eventually I ditched them and put them in my knapsack. My socks got wet walking through a small puddle, so I took those off, too, and walked barefoot through the grass. Field mice would occasionally skitter across my feet, causing me to jump and scream like a little girl.

After walking for an hour, Link and I took a break at the gates of Lon-Lon ranch. A small brook babbled by not twenty paces away from the entrance. I pointed to it and asked if I could just drink from that as I wasn't too fond of horses. Link shook his head and made a gesture toward the ranch.

"As long as I don't have to bother with the horses," I said.

We walked in. Someone was singing a strange song somewhere far off past the horse stalls. She began her song off very soft, just three notes, sang them twice, and then went into full song.I found her voice, and the song, alluring. I realized I was humming as we walked through the ranch. I hummed so much that Link was walking and rolling his eyes at me. I guess I embarrassed him, but I didn't care. I love to sing.

We passed a house and a barn on our way to buy milk. Before we could get further than the second door, we heard a snoring noise, and a lot of chickens.

"What's with all the noise coming from in here, I wonder?" I sarcastically thought out loud.

"Probably, Talon is asleep." Link replied, not catching the sarcasm.

"Isn't he ALWAYS?" I said.

"Yeah, he is."

"I want to wake him up!" I said brightly; it was an alluring idea.

"I must admit, that sounds fun," He said, "But that mightn't be too good an idea; he sleeps like the dead."

"So? I need milk," I said, opening the door.

We walked in and were instantly hit by the smell of overripe chicken droppings.

"EEEUWW" we said in unison.

"Okay," I admitted, "You were right. Just not for the right reason."

"Yeah, let's just get the milk and get out of here," He said nasally, holding his nose and walking in.

"Just a sec, then" I said, nodding and sitting down at the door.

I was putting my boots on because the floor was covered in a rug of chicken droppings. I didn't bother with my socks; they were still wet.


	3. Chapter 3 Mindset of a Warrior

**Chapter 3**

**"Mindset of a Warrior"**

Grudgingly getting back on my feet, I ran up to Talon. I didn't want to spend much time in here, so, naturally, I slipped once. As luck would have it, I finally managed to start shoving him, to try to get him awake. This was not an easy task; he was sleeping like the dead, and snoring like a chainsaw besides. Plus, my boots didn't have any form of traction. Link was running around, being no help, trying to get, what he called, a 'cuckoo' to wake Talon up with.

"Get over here you stupid bird!" he was yelling at a chicken.

"HEY, LINK!" I yelled, "You're not going to get very far! Help me get Talon awake!"

"Easier said than done, huh?" He yelled back.

"Bet your ass!"

"What does that mean?"

"Oh, never mind."

Wiping the sweat off his forehead and leaving the bird to run off on its own, Link walked back in my direction. He was breathing heavy as he stood beside me, using his own techniques to wake the lazy bastard up. I guess sprinting was hard work in boots. Reminder never to sprint, then.

So we shook Talon, dropped him on his side, and I slapped him until my hand hurt, to no effect much to my chagrin. Both of us were getting tired of being in the rancid-smelling barn when the chicken next to his ear, crowed like a rooster and woke him up.

"What?" he snorted in surprise, "I'm up!"

"Finally," I snapped, wiping beads of sweat off my face, "could I buy some milk from you?"

He looked at me like I was speaking gibberish.

"Look, buddy, I have dirt in my mouth, I'm tired, and I don't have all day to play games. Now, are you going to sell me some or do I have to drink water?"

He sat there in complete silence for a while with his eyelids drooping. Not that I was surprised; he was an older man with balding black hair. He was fat, lazy and smelled like he hadn't bathed in three months. I surmised this was because he was around chickens all the time. He remained silent and staring with half-closed eyes at me, when a sound finally escaped his lips.

He snored.

"AAAGH," I yelled and whacked him upside the head, "We're not going to get anywhere with this hopeless, washed-up old man!"

Talon fell over upon impact, but didn't wake up, infuriating me even more. I could feel my face go bright red, and I looked at Link, he was grinning in amusement. I fumed, but the look in his eyes made me calm down. I knew there was another way to get the dirt out of my mouth, but I didn't care. I was still mad at Talon, and I didn't care who knew it.

"Let's go see Ingo, then, maybe he'll have some time to help us," Link said, chuckling.

"Yeah, let's hope he's not as washed-up as Talon is," I fumed, and smacked Talon again for good measure, he still didn't wake up.

We walked out, walked about seven paces, and entered the barn. And sure enough, Ingo was working, but pretty much doing nothing. He was grumbling to himself about how life wasn't fair, and throwing things around.

Ingo was about five foot seven, had balding black hair, a big nose, was gangly, and slightly overweight, the obvious pudge around his middle. I couldn't really tell the colour of his eyes under his eyebrows, but I assumed they were black. In one of his big hands, he had a pitchfork, and in the other he had a bucket, and he was swinging them around wildly, being very careful to hit everything but the animals and swearing profusely.

"Yeah, yeah. Life's a bitch and then you die. Can you help us?" I snapped.

"What do you want?" Ingo yelled.

I glared at him, and he froze in his tracks.

"If looks could kill…" Link whispered in my ear, his moist, hot breath giving me goosebumps along my spine.

"Let me make this simple, since you seem to have as limited brain capacity as Talon: We. Would. Like. Some. Help." I said slowly, still glaring.

"Yes, I got that. What do you want my help for?" he said sharply, glaring at me as if I'd just stuck him with a pin.

"We'd like to buy some milk, please," Link said politely, trying to calm Ingo down.

Failing miserably, but I had to give him credit for trying anyway. I, on the other hand, wasn't quite so courteous.

"Go talk to Talon, I'm much too busy," Ingo said just as sharply to Link.

"Screw you, then, you big-nosed good for nothing," I muttered as we left, and visibly bit my thumb at him.

Ingo just stared at us as we walked out, acting as if we didn't just infuriate anyone. As if we didn't have a care in the world. Which we didn't yet, but still, to do what we'd just done, you'd be either very brave, very powerful, or VERY stupid. I bet we were a mixture of the first and third.

"Now what?" I said as we left the Ranch, "my mouth still tastes like dirt!"

We walked over to the brook, and Link dragged a bottle through the water. He held it in his palm and examined it, probably looking for fish or mould. He sat down to examine it, so I followed suit and took my boots off again. I washed the droppings off in the river and Link made a face. I didn't give him any sign of caring, and took my socks out of my bag,. Well, they weren't dry yet, so I didn't bother with them, and kept my boots off.

"Heat this up and drink it," he said, "Unless, of course, you want to get sick."

"Okay," I said, "but heat it up on what?"

He paused, "okay, just drink it. I'll get you an orange."

I swished the water around in my mouth and spat. Then, I realised just how sweet the water was. I drank the water quickly, and I noticed how it was cooler and better tasting than any water I'd ever had before. I looked at the bottle of water as if it was the purest thing I'd ever seen. It quite possibly was. I tried to hand the bottle back to Link, but he refused it. He said I could have it and I put the cork in it. I put it in my bag, hoping like hell it wouldn't leak.

"Let's go to Kakariko," I said, "Maybe they have oranges there."

"They do," Link said as we started walking towards a big mountain, "I bought one there a while ago."

"That would be a good thing," I said, stopping to let him lead this time.

"How do you know the way?" Link said, catching up to me.

I pointed toward the mountain, indicating that it was the only road that didn't either lead to Lake Hylia or Hyrule Castle Towne. Link shrugged and we continued on with him in front. The road was long to Kakariko, but I knew we could make it. After all, I was still barefoot. Walking now wasn't such a pain as there weren't as many field mice, but the grasshoppers. Oh my God, the grasshoppers. There were thousands more since we were near water. Eventually, they got to be in such great numbers that they stopped frightening me. Link would occasionally have to swat at the air in front of him as the flies were greater in number around here, too.

The brook turned into a river the closer we got to Kakariko, and soon it swept rapidly under a bridge that stretched between a road to Hyrule Castle Towne and a road to Kakariko Village. About a hundred feet from the bridge was the northward stairs to Kakariko that were both steep in their height, and steep in their slope up the mountain.

The steep made no problems for Link, but it gave me hell as I stumbled and tripped and ran short on breath climbing them. A short reprieve was a patch of ground that lead to a north-eastern sloping flight of stairs, and that's the last reprieve I got for about fifty yards.

I slumped down on the ground near the entrance gates to Kakariko and waited until my heartbeat returned to normal. Link waited patiently by a wall, not saying anything, but his breathing seemed slightly laboured. Once my own breathing regained normalcy, too, I stood up and followed Link into Kakariko.

"Welcome back, Link," said the Village guard at the gate, "And who are you?"

He lowered his spear to block my entrance. Link kept walking, he didn't notice the problems that were rising behind him. He was allowed into Kakariko, and I wasn't? That wasn't fair!

"I'm Hylia, and I'm with him," I replied, straining against his spear that he used to keep me out and pointing to Link's back.

"Really? I thought the princesses relatives weren't allowed outside the castle." He said coldly.

"What?" I nearly yelled.

He was acting as if the whole of Hyrule didn't know that I'd lived by myself so I wouldn't have to deal with castle life. Or, so I'd said. I was too infuriated to realize that he'd given my story merit. I was too livid to notice that he'd said I was Zelda's cousin. I'd made that up, but he said it was true. And, now, it was.

"I…Thought…The…Royal…Family…Was…Not…Allowed…Outside…The… Castle" he said slowly.

"I heard you the first time, but I live by myself. Zelda and my Uncle don't mind. Now, if you will, let me pass!" I said with an air of self-importance, pretending to pick my ear disdainfully.

"Hylia, what's holding you up?" Link called, turning to face me.

"Help! I'm stuck!" I yelled after him, waving my arms up and down to get his attention.

Navi flew up to me to see what was the problem, and I accidentally hit her while waving my arms. I snickered to myself as she started hitting me in the head and yelling at me. Not that I was listening, of course. I didn't care what little-miss-annoying had to say.

Link ran back up and told the guard that I was with him, and that I was telling the truth.

After ten minutes of arguing and yelling, we were on our way through the village. I was grumbling about how that guard was an asshole, and how he should get thrown back a couple of ranks. Perhaps down to social guard, or time guard, anything but village protection guard.

"How did he know you were Princess Zelda's cousin?" Link asked.

"The whole of Hyrule knows," I said, fuming, "It's kind of hard not to get noticed when you go to live on your own at eight, especially as royalty."

"Maybe this'll cheer you up," Link said, pulling out an orange from his backpack.

I smiled, and thought 'how sweet of him. Maybe he's not as stupid as I thought.'

"Thanks a million," I said.

"Any time," He replied, smiling back at me.

Navi popped out of Link's hat after hiding there during the fight. I put the orange in my pack along with the bottle and the orange hit the bottle with a small sound, and I almost panicked. If the bottle broke, Link would surely wring my neck. Or, that is, I would have panicked, but Navi began to annoy me again.

"Quit flirting, you two," She said, "We've still got to go see Darunia, remember?"

"What's with that look?" Link asked.

"Nothing," I said, hiding the fact I wanted to kill Navi, "I just don't like being patronized."

Giving Navi a pointed look, we walked up a flight of more stairs. Link was trying not to laugh.

'Yeah, yeah, I'm a real riot aren't I? I'm upset, get over it,' I thought.

"Get over what?" Link asked without looking at me.

My utter surprise cast aside my anger and threw me into a stunned, motionless silence until Link stopped walking and turned to me. Since I'd stopped mid-stride, I put my foot down to make a point.

"I didn't SAY anything," I said, "I thought the words 'get over it' but I didn't SAY them."

Link's look at me changed. It did a back flip from slight amusement to a dumbfounded, stunned expression.

"Okay, that's frightening. I swear I heard you say it," his words came out slowly and rigidly.

His whole body shook in a shiver as I shook my head.

We finished climbing the stairs on the left side of Kakariko, and took the next ones that lead east, heading up to the entrance of Death Mountain in complete silence. I could just feel that both of us were far too dumbfounded to breathe properly, much less speak.

The guard near the Death Mountain gate had a Keaton mask on, and was giggling like a school-girl. Mind you, all the guards are men. Though, by his laugh, you wouldn't have known it. Not even this slapped me from my frightened state.

"Thanks Mr. Hero," the guard said, "My little boy will love the mask."

Neither of us spoke. Neither of us blinked. We just continued up to the mountain.


	4. Chapter 4 Two Young Warriors

**Chapter 4 **

**"Two Young Warriors"**

The walk up Death Mountain is a treacherous one. Tektites, Skulltullas, and other dangers are numerous, putting even adults in great peril, much less children. Luckily for us, we both had shields and weapons. Well, Link did. I had a slingshot, but it was close enough.

"Be sure to have your shield and slingshot out at all times," Said Link at last, "It's really dangerous up here."

I had kind of figured that, seeing an expression of tension cross his face and attempt to cover the look of complete shock.

"And by the way," he added out of nowhere, "You are really scary."

I nodded, taking my shield from off my back. I really was. There was no other way to describe the shock and astonishment of thinking something, then having someone reply aptly to your thoughts, swearing they heard them.

"Well, let's just get this over with," I said, nodding toward the Mountain Trail.

"Yeah, but don't you see the Tektites?" He asked tensely, then, he noticed my feet, "Oh, you might want to put your boots on now."

Tektites are spider-like creatures with four legs, one eye, and come in two different flavours; red and blue. They are about three feet tall, and came up to about the middle of my chest. They came up to above my head while I was sitting down to put my socks and shoes on. This time, my socks were dry, so I put them on. After I got my left boot on, I had another moment. I just stared at the Tektites further up the trail and couldn't take my eyes off them.

"Hey! Now is no time to get stage fright!" Navi yelled in my ear.

I batted her away, but this time she dodged me and continued yelling as I put my other boot on.

"What?" I said, "I'm not scared.. I'm preparing myself."

Link grabbed my arm, and jerked me to my feet and dragged along with him. He told me to take my slingshot out and help him with the Tektites. I used my free hand to get Link's slingshot and bag of bullets out of the knapsack and managed, somehow, to tie the bag onto the belt on my hip. Asking Link to let go of my arm, I prepared to fire off a few rounds at the Tektites. However, there were only three. I gave Link a questioning glance and he shrugged. There was an abundance of dead Tektite parts on the ground, but the three that bared down on us were the only ones left. Link raised his sword and shield, and I prepped the slingshot.

'Here we go', I thought.

When we'd finished off all the creatures, I stood next to Link, both of us staring at the carnage. I stole his sword, reached into my bag and grabbed what was left of the water, cleaned the sword and wiped off on my dress, and cut into my orange. I gave half the orange to Link, gave him his sword back, and we ate, trying not to puke at the mess. I could visibly see Link wretch a few times, and I had to turn around so I wouldn't succumb to the churning in my stomach.

And it was a MESS. Tektite body parts everywhere, my own blood from when one of the little suckers stole my handkerchief, and burn marks from... wait, burn marks?

"Link," I said indicating the burn marks, "is that normal?"

He thought for a moment as I secured the handkerchief again. Well, the burn marks really looked more like explosion marks, but what would explode up here?

"No... That's just weird," he replied.

'You ain't just whistling Dixie', I thought.

I felt a flood of emotion rush over Link as I sensed his thoughts drift somewhere far away. A tear ran down his cheek, and he wiped at his face with his right thumb.

"What's Dixie?" he mumbled to cover up the near crying.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I said gently, "Like earlier, I didn't say anything."

"Okay, you know what?" Link said, shaking his head to snap out of it, "You are truly scary."

"No kidding," I replied nonchalantly.

Death Mountain has three levels of ground, kind of like a staircase, going up to Goron City in a zigzag pattern. Something rolled by giving off a faint hissing noise. Being on the second level of the slope gave me a sense of vertigo that made me shake. Once the rolling thing got to us, the hissing noise turned into a deafening roar of an explosion and Link was knocked into me by the blast and we fell! My fall was broken by a dead Tektite and I broke Link's fall, though he'd flipped sideways.

"Link," I groaned, "Get off me you fatso!"

Link didn't move.

"Link? Oh shit."

Link had been knocked out by the fall.

"Hey, are you two all right?" called a Goron on the second level, "Sorry!"

"HEY NOTHING!" I yelled, "WE NEED HELP!"

The Goron rolled down the slopes, and up to me. So uthat's/u what'd been hissing.

"What do you need help... with... Did I do that?" He said, seeing the dead Tektites, and Links unconscious body.

"Yes and no. No, we killed the Tektites, but yes, you knocked us off, and Link hit his head. I need some help getting him over my shoulder," I said, grabbing Link by the midsection.

"Oh my Gods," he said, "I'm really sorry."

I wasn't getting anywhere with picking him up.

"Hey, could you help?" I snapped, "Jesus, this guy is heavy."

The Goron lifted Link up effortlessly and put him over my shoulder, and I nearly collapsed under his weight.

"I am REALLY sorry about this. Do you think he'll be all right?" he said, helping me up from my knees.

I looked at Link's arm; it was around my neck and I didn't see any form of blood loss or poor circulation. He should be all right.

"He should be okay," I said, "Look, he's not bleeding anywhere and he's breathing."

He was heavy and weighed, I guessed, around ninety pounds. He seemed to carry all his weight evenly, so it was decently easy to carry him. Not extremely, but decently. Even so, each step I took winded me more. I couldn't talk, but the Goron was striding easily beside me, apologizing profusely.

"Oh, by the way," He said, "I'm Robertran. What's your name? You are really strong for a girl."

I sighed, my knees were trying to give under Links weight. Link had started breathing now, but he wasn't awake yet. He was sleeping, and he had the sleeper hold on me.

"I'm Hylia," I grunted, shifting Link and breathing ruggedly, "And this kind-hearted, patient kind of idiot is Link. I'll just have to carry him until he wakes up. Jeez, this guy can sleep through anything. I'm actually kind of glad he's just asleep, I'd hate for him to be completely unconscious. Why don't you carry him?"

"I'm not much into manual labor" said Robertran, "In fact, the only manual labor I've done is purely by mistake."

Great.

Another Goron, standing next to a blocked cave, ushered to Robertran. Robetran walked over, waved to me, and spoke with the other Goron. I heard a little of what they were talking about. The other Goron was named Cameron. Cameron wondered if Robetran would try using another bomb flower (I guess that's what blew us off the cliff). Robetran said that he'd all ready nearly killed two Hylian kids and a young Gerudo slave, and didn't want to. Wait a minute! Hylian kids and a young Gerudo slave? Maybe that guy could help me carry Link!

I looked around for someone, but the only ones around were me, Link, Robertran and Cameron. Great again.

Near the opening to Goron City, there is a little table-like protrusion from the ground. I set Link on this, and spotted a puddle. Link was sitting up, and snoring away. Oh, how humorous...not.

I went to the puddle to get a drink; I was tired. When I noticed my reflection, I had to swallow a scream.

My hair was a mess, my eyes were blue, and my ears were elongated and pointed, just like Links. I had a thin, pale face, bright red lips, and large eyes. I looked like hell! Before I could get a drink, another Goron, this time female, came out of the city.

"Oh, hello," She said when she noticed us, "Do you know if the cave is open, yet?"

Link snorted, and I jumped.

"Not that I know of," I said shakily, my knees about to give under my own weight, "Robertran and Cameron nearly killed us."

"Oh, my Gods! I'm so sorry! You poor dears. What are your names?" she asked.

"I'm Hylia, and this, sleeping-like-the-dead-and-snoring-like-a-used-saw young man is Link," I said, nearly picking him up, "And we need to see Darunia," and I couldn't get any more strength to pick him up.

In fact, the struggle of lifting him up knocked me to my knees.

"I'm Darunia's wife. My husband isn't in a good mood right now, but I'm sure we could help your poor friend until he's in a better mood" She replied, "My name is Danita."

She started to pick Link up, being careful not to make him hit his head again.

"Thank you for offering, but I'll do it. I've gotten this far, I should fare until he wakes up," I flat out lied.

"Oh, nonsense, dear, you're so tired. Would you like some tea?" She said.

I agreed to the tea, but I wanted something that'd wake me up. Like coffee. I was so tired I'd be willing to ignore what my mother told me and just drink a whole kettle of coffee. If I couldn't carry Link, I might as well make damn sure I don't pass out.

We entered the city, Danita chatting away, too. Do all Gorons like to talk so much?

"So, Hylia," she asked, "where do you two come from?"

"I'm from just outside Hyrule Castle Towne, I'm Zelda's cousin," I replied, "and Link is from The Kokiri Forest, but something makes me not quite sure that he is a Kokiri."

Link started snoring loudly before I could answer much more than that. His snores echoed off the walls of the city and grew louder and more reverberated with each echo. We'd gone down three flights of stairs before Link stopped snoring. The wall in front of us was carved into a multi-storied building complete with windows. I didn't have time to stare because Danita was all ready holding the door for me to enter. We entered into a standing room of sorts, with a large desk carved out of stone and several stone chairs. It sort of looked like a check in room of an Inn.

A particularly large Goron stood behind the desk with a blank look on his stupid-looking face. Danita asked for a room for two and the Goron directed her to sign a slab of parchment with names on it. She signed "Hylia and Link" in Goron script. Well, that's what I think she signed. I could read my name, so I guessed the second and third words. She motioned for me to follow her down a hall, I nodded and took a step, promptly running into a dark-skinned young man.

"I'm sorry, excuse me," I said, "I didn't mean to run into you."

"That's okay," he said. "It's hard to see in these caves; who would this be?" he asked pointing to Link.

"It's Link. He's... compromised," I said, remembering why I let Danita carry him in the first place, "OH! I need to help him!"

The big Goron spoke to the young man in worn red pants and a very old-looking purple-blue vest about something called a Dodongo, but I didn't have time to eavesdrop. I ran back up to Danita as she turned another corner. She took another turn and I heard footsteps following quickly behind me. I didn't think I had time to turn around, so I kept following Danita. She stopped quite suddenly and opened a wood door which lead to a sparsely furnished room. It had two chairs, both made of stone, a stone sink, a wood stove, also made of stone, and a tea kettle. The footsteps came closer, so I quickly shut the door, hoping whoever it was would stop following me. I took eight steps as Danita set Link down on a stone chair when the wooden door was smashed open. I let loose with a scream that pierced even my own ears, and the stranger jumped. The stranger was the young man I'd run into in the lobby.

"Sorry, I tried to stop, but I was moving too fast. I ran into the door trying to follow you guys. I'll fix the door if you need me to," he said apologetically.

"No, that's okay, dear," said Danita, "I'll get the manager to fix it. It wasn't your fault."

"I'm really sorry," he said at me, "are you all right?"

"It's not me you need to worry about," I said, "It's Link. He smacked his head on the ground after Robertran knocked us off a cliff with a bomb flower."

"You too, huh?" he laughed, "so how is he doing?"

"He's asleep, but I've still got a bad feeling."

Danita started brewing some coffee for herself as we spoke, and I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, how she did. She put the coffee beans on a cutting board, and used a stone to grind them up. Then she put them on a fabric, tied the fabric, and put it in water that she'd been boiling.

"Well he hit his head, did you check the damage?" he asked looking at Link.

"Awh, shit," I said, "I never thought of that. I checked his pulse, though."

I quickly walked over to Link in a slight panic and pulled his hat off. Sure enough, there was a patch of dark blood. Danita looked over at me and grimaced. The young man hissed between his teeth, a sound that indicated empathetic pain.

"Awh, shit," I repeated.

"Don't worry, it probably looks worse than it is. It looks like the blood has already started to clot."

"I'm not so sure," I said as I watched a line of blood slither its way down the back of Link's head, "I think he'll need stitches. Is there a sewing kit around here?"

"I'll go get one," Danita said, leaving, "clean his wound while I'm out, okay?"

"Just get a needle. I actually have some gut so I could sell it if I needed money."

"My mother taught me how to stitch up wounds," I said.

She nodded, "Your mother is a smart woman."

I nodded and she turned and left. I washed my bloody handkerchief in the pump sink and walked back over to Link. He'd fallen over and was on the arm of the big chair.

"Well, at least he's moving," I said.

"I'll hold his head still, be sure to get through the hair so you don't have to re-clean it when you stitch him up," The young man said.

"Yeah, I know."

I cleaned his head as best I could with the cloth, but his bleeding was hard to control. I wiped the dripping blood and pressed the handkerchief on the wound until Danita got back with the stitching needle. It was made of bone, so the threading would be easy, but it looked like it'd been run through a fire, so it'd probably be clean enough so I wouldn't have to clean it myself, but it'd probably be a bit brittle.

"Thanks," I said, grabbing the needle, "can I use that gut now?"

"Yeah, here," he said pulling it out of the bag on his hip.

"Can you part his hair for me?" I asked, taking the gut and threading the needle.

"Sure, here we go" he said carefully parting his hair gently, so he wouldn't make the injury worse.

"Thank you," I said again, and began to sew.

It was a long procedure, and I had to repress retching several times. I hated blood, as I discovered, and stitches made me sick. Halfway through the procedure, I had the young man hold my handkerchief on Link's scalp so I could throw up in the sink. I wiped my face on my dress and walked back. I finished without incident. I bit the gut so it'd break and handed it, along with the needle, back to the dark-skinned fellow.

Not having anything else to do while Link slept and Danita was away, I introduced myself.

"Where are my manners!" I began, "My name's Hylia. It's a pleasure to meet you."

I extended my hand, and the young man shook it with such strength that my fingers popped slightly.

"I'm Arlimand, and don't worry about it. In a situation like this, introductions aren't nearly that important. So, where are you from and how did you two meet?" He asked, releasing my hand.

I chuckled slightly, "Huh, so there is someone in Hyrule who's never heard of me. I'm Princess Zelda's cousin. You know, the one who lives alone just outside Hyrule Castle Towne."

"Hm, interesting. One thing though, I'm from Gerudo Valley. I don't know much about castle town."

"That's actually 'The Castle Towne'. There's only one. So, you're the young Gerudo Slave that Robertran was talking about? How'd you escape?"

Danita presented both of us with hot stone mugs of tea. I thanked her and Arlimand nodded in approval.

"Hold on," He said, "You didn't finish answering my question."

"Oh, yeah," I said, "well I suppose I'll tell the whole story. I had been down by the Lakeside, talking with Mizumi," Arlimand gave me a questioning glance, "The scientist. Suddenly, everything went dark and I woke up in the Lost Woods. Link was standing over me and..."

Link cut me short on my story by one rather loud snort.

"Where am I?" he asked, sitting bolt upright in his chair.

The idiot was awake.


	5. Chapter 5 Medical Hylia Enter Alrimand

**Chapter 5 **

**"Medical Officer, Hylia. Enter, Arlimand"**

"Oh, my dear, you're awake," said Danita, "You're in Goron City. You're friend here carried you most of the way here. I shall have to have a talk with Robertran. He knocked you both off the cliff."

Link just stared at her. He, as I said, is not the brightest crayon in the box. He didn't say anything, and got up. He turned to me and sniffed, I'm guessing he liked peppermint tea.

"Do you want some?" I asked, waving the tea under his nose.

He nodded, his eyes dull and blurry. Poor kid.

Just then, the newly-fixed door to the room slammed open, cracked, and a very pissed off Darunia came in. He hugged Danita, got a rock, ate it, and left without a single word. Danita followed quickly behind.

"Oh wow," Link said stupidly, "He sure is mad! Wonder why?"

"Well, I don't think my 'talents' taken from the Gerudo helped much." Arlimand said sheepishly.

"What would these i'talents'/i be?" Link asked dully suspiciously.

I pretended to slap Link, "What do you think?"

"For demonstration, would these be yours?" he asked, holding out three green rupees and a blue one.

I could only stare as I felt something move in my backpack, and realized what it was. Navi had been in Link's hat at the time of his fall, and was too scared to leave his hat, so now I had the annoying fairy in my backpack. I let her out and apologized.

"I - How - bTHOSE ARE MINE!/b" I said insulted, but at least he didn't take my purple one.

"As I said for demonstration purposes only," he said dumping them back into my knapsack.

I quickly tightened up my knapsack and put it back on my shoulders. I began to have some suspicions about this guy, myself.

"Well, we'd better get going," Link said, weakly.

"No, you lie down, I will help Hylia if she needs it," he said rather insistently.

"WHAT? Not fair! I'm the one Zelda sent to save Hyrule" He cried.

He then covered his mouth quickly and muttered something that sounded like "Oh, shit, that should have been a secret," but I couldn't tell with his hand in the way.

"What?" I said, actually wondering.

He shook his head to indicate that he couldn't tell me and looked around.

"Save Hyrule, eh?" I said.

"Save it from whom?" Arlimand asked as if he thought he may have all ready known.

Link shook his head again.

"C'mon, spill the beans!" I said.

"Spill what?" Link asked, an expression of thorough confusion playing with his face.

"It means tell us," Arlimand said, seeming surprised he knew what it meant.

Link sighed, "Zelda left me in charge of saving Hyrule from Ganondorf, leader of the Gerudos."

Arlimand sighed as well.

"I knew he was up to something. Is there any way I can help?"

Link thought about it, and gave me a pointed look.

"Well, I, for one, have a problem with him near my stuff," I said, pointedly.

"So long as he doesn't take it," Link trailed off.

"I'm right here. I would have pick-pocketed you, Link, but you had a major head injury. I didn't want to cause more trauma. Plus, there is the deterrent of that sword," Arlimand said defensively.

"But you cut-pursed a girl?" I defended.

"She has a point," Link said.

"I told you, I did it for demonstration, and it was either her or another Goron, and their kind, I recently found, don't have pockets..."

I snickered. That meant that he'd pulled off some poor sucker's loincloth.

"That may be why Darunia is more upset than he would be," Arlimand finished.

Link tried to stand again. Arlimand gently pushed him back down.

"I may not agree with Arli's pick-pocketing..."

"Hey!" he interrupted.

"But I agree with him that you need to lay down." I finished.

Link looked around the room and cocked an eyebrow.

"Great and all, but, where would I lie down?"

I looked around, too. Gorons don't use beds! I smacked my forehead with the palm of my hand. I'd forgotten about that.

"Here, to show you that you can trust me," he said, pulling some blankets out of a knapsack of his own, and lay them on the ground "also, I don't like Ganondork, and I want to do anything I can to help put a stop to his plans," he finished.

Link and I turned to him in surprise and gratification at the same time, and Link walked to where Arlimand had lay the blankets. I repressed a giggle at Arlimand calling the leader of the Gerudo "Ganondork" but Link had no clue what Arli'd said.

"Thank you, Arlimand," Link said and lied down on them.

"No problem," he replied

I chose a chair to sit in; I didn't think we'd be going anywhere today. I rested my head against the back of the chair and held the peppermint tea in my lap. Now that my eyes were closed, I realized just how tired I really was. Maybe sleeping would be a good idea. We could always save Hyrule tomorrow.

"Maybe rest would be a good thing?" I mused.

I heard Link mumble in approval and Arlimand's feet walk toward the chair on the other side of the room.

"Yeah but if you guys were sent by Zelda, you guys will have to talk to Darunia if you are looking for what I think you're looking for."

I mumbled a sound of approval at Arlimand, and was too tired to do much more. I'd agree comprehensibly later.

When I awoke, I found Link sleeping comfortably on the blankets Arlimand had left for him, but no Arlimand. My thoughts ran along the lines of "!" again as I panickedly searched the room for him. No sign of Arlimand anywhere. With panic striking my mind like a giant hammer, I ran to my knapsack. I opened it to find that I still had my fifty-eight rupees and bottle of three drops of water. Confused, I woke Link up.

"Arlimand's gone!" I said, "Check your stuff!"

"Gee thanks!" Arlimand said, his voice coming from behind me as he set down a tray of food on the table.

I turned my head so fast when he spoke that my neck popped relievingly.

"Ah-Arlimand!" Link and I said in surprised unison.

"Hi there. I only left five minutes ago to grab some breakfast for us," he said, sitting down.

Link and I stared in amazement.

"What time is it?" Link asked.

"What day is it?" I said.

"It's about eight in the morning, we were only asleep for a night," He said, shrugging.

"How can you tell in these caves?"

"I asked one of the Gorons, don't ask me how they know, they just do."

"Good enough," Link said as he stood up to grab one of the pieces of bread that Arlimand brought.

I was hesitant to get anything, since the Gorons are a rock-eating people. My hesitancy must have shown.

"Don't worry" Arlimand said, "I brought the food with me, I just went out to heat it up."

Link looked at him stupidly, "But there's a wood stove right here..."

"It's easier to heat it up over the bubbling magma than it is to keep it from burning in the fire,"

It was my turn to look at Arlimand stupidly. Keep it from burning in the fire? Had he never heard of a stovetop? I began to be less suspicious of Arlimand, and began to more wonder about him. Even if he was an uneducated Gerudo slave, surely they had him cook his own meals on a stove? Why in the world would he use magma to cook food? I continued to stare at Arlimand stupidly, even as he looked at me.

"Just try it, it's good," he said grabbing some of the bread and began to eat.

Cautiously I stood up and grabbed some of the warm bread. It wasn't hot, it was just... warm. How did he manage to just warm it up? Shouldn't it have burned to a crisp? Shouldn't HE have burned to a crisp? I guess I must have looked as curious as I felt.

"I never learned how to cook over a stove, they always gave me food cold, but there were hot springs nearby that I learned to heat it up over. I figured that with magma the food had to be a lot higher and stay in for a lot less time," he said shrugging to me as if it explained everything. "anyway, hurry and eat we need to talk to Darunia".

I munched on some bread, one of the pieces of cheese, and one of the eggs he'd cooked. Link hungrily ate two pieces of cheese and half of the loaf of bread.

"Hylia, you asked me yesterday how I escaped," Arlimand said, "Well, to tell you the truth I didn't escape exactly, I got turned around. You see after working for this family for a few years they began to trust me more, because every night the daughter would try to hide a couple of rupees under a makeshift pillow I had," he paused to take a bite of egg, "To tell the truth, I think she liked me. But, then again, there weren't very many slaves her age. Anyway, every morning I would give them to her mother, saying I had found them. Eventually they trusted me to move more freely around the valley, they sent me to sell crops and buy some supplies. Keep in mind, not all the Gerudo are completely dishonest;" he took another piece of bread. "Some of them farm, some sell goods. Then they needed some fruit. Normally, they would go buy it themselves, but they trusted me enough to go to The Castle Towne to buy it, but on my way I got turned around because of a silhouette that turned out to be a ranch. So, I just kept walking and wound up here."

"Well then, that explains a lot" I said, "but it doesn't explain why you want to help Link... I thought the Gerudo hated Hylians?"

"I'm not Hylian!" Link protested, "I'm a Kokiri!"

"Well, yeah, but not all of them like Ganondorf either, they just don't want to change the way they have been doing things for hundreds of years." He said pushing his plate aside, "In fact many think he is a power-hungry monster, but they wouldn't whisper it in a crowd."

I turned to Link and he shrugged.

"So, why *do* you want to help me?" Asked Link.

"And how did you get past the guard at Death Mountain gate?" I mused loudly.

"Well, I absolutely hate our "leader" and I feel like I'm supposed to. To get past the guard told him I had to get through and he laughed at me."

"He does that," Link interrupted.

"I noticed," He laughed, "Anyway he told me that it was too dangerous, so I challenged him to a fight. He laughed again, so I tripped him and climbed over the fence."

I had to laugh. Just the image of this kid tripping that soldier was so comical that I had no hope of repressing my amusement. Even Link's eyes danced and sparkled with humor. His smile lit up his whole face and his grin made him look even younger than he was.

"I take it that made him very happy," I said sarcastically.

"Yeah," he laughed, "you guys done? If so, we should get to Darunia."

"I'm done," I said, pushing the rest of my bread away.

"But you've hardly eaten!" Link said, "But I'm done, too."

Link pushed his plate away, put it on mine, grabbed both up, and set them in the sink.

"From what I have heard, Darunia has locked himself in his throne room and won't unlock the door until a royal messenger gets here, so unless you guys can convince him you are royal messengers, we may run into some problems." Arlimand informed us.

I laughed, "Can't you just break his door down?" I indicated the door to the Inn room.

"Yeah, I could," he laughed "If the door wasn't stone."

"Oh," Link said, snickering, "That makes it hard I guess."

I laughed. Link didn't notice, but he'd just made a pun. Or, at least, I thought he did.

"No pun intended," he observed, smiling.

"Alright. So, any ideas? Do you guys have any documents talking about your connection?"

Link shrugged, "No, but I do have this..." he pulled out an Ocarina.

He put the Ocarina to his lips and began to play. I recognised the tune from my memories of life in the castle. It was my cousin's lullaby, the one Impa, her guardian, would play for her every night. The tune had always put me to sleep, too, and with Link's rendition playing, I began to get drowsy. He played until I was asleep. I knew I was asleep because, the next thing I knew, I was in a dark room, unable to move. I felt like I was waiting for something, waiting and shaking. Shaking more and more, I realised that I was rocking. Someone was rocking me! They were trying to wake me up! When I came to, it was Link standing over me again.

"What was that all about?" He asked, "You just keeled over!"

Arlimand chuckled, "I'm just glad I'm not the only one."

I yawned and rubbed my eye, "That was Zelda's Lullaby. It puts me straight to sleep."

Link cocked an eyebrow at me.

"It works on me, too," I explained.

"And, apparently, Arlimand, too," he replied.

"Oh shut up!" He replied, sounding unsure "anyway, if that will work we need to get to Darunia."

Link helped me stand up, and I offered to help Arlimand up, but he was all ready on his feet and at the door. He nodded his head at us to hurry as we headed to the front desk.


	6. Chapter 6 Dodongos Cavern

**Chapter 6 **

**"Dodongo's Cavern"**

Once we'd managed to pay for our room with the last of our collective money, a grand total of one hundred fifty eight rupees and some promises we didn't intend to keep, we left the Inn to search out Darunia's throne room. Goron city was bigger than I'd first thought when Danita helped me carry Link here, and I looked around for the first genuine time, and, really, Gorons were pretty amazing architects. Not the brightest tulips in the garden, but, all the same.

We walked past a mirror, and I had to suppress a scream. I could feel myself pale and my jaw drop. My hair had totally escaped the hairband, and I looked like I had an Afro. Link and Arli had simply stared at me, can you blame them? Their stares dissolved into laughter as I licked my palms and ran my hands over my hair in a vain attempt to smooth it.

"You're both assholes. Did you know that?" I said.

"Sticks and stones" Link said. Only, one thing was wrong.

His lips didn't move.

I turned and stared at him with my mouth agape as he said his thoughts. And I continued staring at him until he asked me what was wrong.

"Y-you said, "sticks and stones" t-twice" I stuttered.

"No he didn't," Arli said, looking from me to Link and back again, "What the hell did I just miss?"

I looked at Arli, then Link, then Arli again.

"He did!" I said, "Only the first time, his lips didn't move!"

"Right, of course," He said, disbelief obvious in his voice.

His expression spoke of a sense that things weren't quite right and screamed of genuine confusion and distrust of the situation. I returned the expression. Link didn't move, save for his mouth. He opened and shut his mouth in the same way he had in the forest. I still thought he looked like a codfish.

"I thought "sticks and stones" before I said it," he finally said.

"So, what? You guys can talk with your minds?"Arlimand said.

He laughed like it was a joke.

"Dunno..." I said slowly, "Let me give it a try."

'What now?' I thought.

'No clue' Link's thoughts rang in my head.

Arlimand just stared at us as if expecting something.

"Well Darunia's throne room is right over here!" Arli said, sounding more than a little freaked out.

"Right" Link and I said in unison.

Not sure what to say, or much less think, Link and I just followed Arli to the stone door to Darunia's throne room in complete silence. We took three flights of stairs. One up, and then two down, which lead us to a veranda of sorts on the bottom floor of the city. Darunia's room was straight ahead from the passage we were standing in. I recognised it by the symbol on the door. All Gorons were tattooed with the symbol on both arms. It was supposed to have meant 'Strength', but I guessed it meant something more akin to 'Dumb Muscle'.

"So that... flute... thing" Arlimand said to Link, "Let's see if it works, but let me plug my ears."

"It's an Ocarina," Link said offendedly.

"Sorry, I'm not musically inclined. Never was given an opportunity to learn" he said apologetically.

I was kind of surprised that this former slave knew the word "inclined". My train of thought was cut short as Link began to play, and Arlimand and I clamped our hands over our ears. I could still feel the music down to my core, and I started to feel sleepy, but I shook myself awake to keep me on my feet. Sure enough, the large stone door opened to allow us entry.

"YOU MAY ENTER" a voice boomed, loud enough for me to hear it with my hands over my ears.

Link took the Ocarina away from his lips, pocketed it, and stuck his pinkies in his ears.

"Ow" he lip synced.

"Let's go before he yells again," Arlimand suggested.

Link and I nodded in unison and started off in much the same manner. There were five steps that lead to an alcove which made up Darunia's throne room. The room was lit by two large torches, and in the center of a back wall stood a chair that carried the largest Goron I'd ever seen. No wonder he was the leader and Big Brother of all Gorons...

"What the heck?" Darunia yelled, making my ears ache, "When I heard the song of the royal family, I thought their messenger had arrived! Not some wimpy kids!"

Arlimand looked offended at the word wimpy, yet seemed more interested in the throne itself. If I'd thought the Business Shrub had pissed me off by calling me "little girl", the whole scenario paled in comparison to the Sworn Brother of my Uncle calling me and my companions "wimpy". I could feel my face flush with anger, and Link put his hand on my shoulder again. I looked at him. He had the Ocarina to his lips and one hand ready on the notes.

"Shut up, you fat bastard," I hissed at Darunia.

Arlimands eyes widened slightly at my remark. He shook his head slightly in a late warning. It was at this point Link decided it would be advantageous to play. The song that came from the small instrument at his lips was the same as the one in the woods. The only thing missing was the flute sound in the background. Actually, the music was nice without it. Much to my surprise, Darunias hard expression faltered as his feet started tapping. I got an idea. I winked at Arlimand and reached behind me to pull up a pot. I put it upside down and pounded out a rhythm that didn't sound too bad. Arlimand caught on and headed to the side of the room where a lute lay on its side. He picked it up and experimented with the strings. I guess he decided that it didn't sound good, because he put it back down and returned his focus to the song ended and Darunias mood seemed to have lightened. In fact, he seemed downright giddy and on the verge of dancing.

"I don't really understand what you just did, kid, but thank you," He said.

"You're welcome," Link said, "Now we have a favor to ask of you."

"Anything at all," Darunia said gleefully.

"The Spiritual Stone of Fire," I said plainly.

Darunia's face fell and became livid.

"That is not a favor I can give. However, I'm willing to make a deal with you. I made the same offer to the young man standing next to you: if you destroy the Dodongos in the cavern, I will give you the stone and forgive him," he said.

"Sounds pricey," I said, "Why?"

"We Gorons are rock eaters. We have become somewhat of gourmets and can't eat the rocks we use to build this city. They taste terrible. The only rocks we can eat anymore are the ones in Dodongo's Cavern. But the dragon that lives in Dodongo's Cavern has been acting up, so we have to hunt for our favorite rocks. That doesn't leave time for me to deal with twerps like you. My people are starving and no one can get into the caves. On top of that, a man in black armor came here before you did, demanding the stone," at this, Arlimand's eyebrows shot up, "He said, 'Give me the Spiritual Stone! Only then will I unblock the cave for you.' I asked about Dodongo and he said we were on our own, so I didn't make the deal. However, if you can prove your worth by unblocking the cave and dealing with the dragons, I will gladly be in your debt."

Before I could open my mouth to protest, Link said, "It's a deal."

And that was that.

"How about we throw a bomb off the side of the cliff, that way it lands on the big rock?" Link mused.

"Sure" Arlimand and I said in unison.

I'd spent the walk out of Goron city fuming at Link about helping the good-for-nothing leader of an incredibly dumb people, and Link spent it explaining that, if we were going to save Hyrule, we had to save ALL its people. We had to save all the Hyrulians, not just the smart ones. I had to yell across Arlimand that I didn't want to save them, that I just wanted the bloody spiritual stone. Karma had its way though, because as Link lunged at me, I was painfully shoved over and ran over by something. I looked up to see what it was with a face full of dirt and could barely make out the wobbly motion of a Goron rolling, and got to walk back in enough pain to kill a horse. So now, sitting on the same table I'd placed Link on, I was trying to get the dirt out of my eyes.

"At least this one didn't have a bomb flower," Arlimand said, "It could have been worse."

Link was standing at a small fence that guarded a long drop off the side of the top cliff and staring down at the cavern. He would occasionally cock his head to the side to look at something from a different angle and I had to roll my eyes. He looked like a puppy. A very dumb puppy. I rubbed my face off on my dress.

"How could it have been worse?" I asked, flipping my hair out of its band and getting up, "I just got run over by a giant Goron and now I think my back is bruised! We have to save a race of people just to stop Ganondorf from taking over Hyrule! I'm going to help this idiot," I indicated Link, "Whether I like it or not! I can feel it. This isn't the end of the pain, Arli, I just know it."

I walked over to the puddle that I'd seen on the way up earlier. My reflection was fuzzy and stared back at me with shining blue eyes. My hair wasn't so bad, but I grabbed my bottle and scooped up some water to pour on my head anyway.

"Well, one way it could be worse; the world could disappear and we would be alone in nothingness with this 'idiot'," he replied looking at Link.

"Not what I mean," I said, turning away and dumping the water on my tilted head, "Think of it this way. I'm not really anything special, I was just born to a family who happened to be even vaguely related to the Princess of Hyrule. I'd been talking to the scientist, and wound up heading to Kakariko, a village I've never been in. I've just learned I can communicate with Link through thoughts, and now I'm going to save Hyrule with a man I'm sure isn't smart enough to tie his own boots," I opened my eyes and sighed, "What the hell am I doing here?"

"You aren't the one who woke up under a tree with a bunch of girls staring at you, unsure where you came from, taken home like a stray dog, and turned into a slave in the middle of a desert," He shuddered, "I wasn't sure where I came from myself. I am sent to get fruit, got turned around, wound up here only to get hit by a goron with a bomb flower, and try to pickpocket the leader. And now I am trying to save the world with two people who have no trust or faith in me whatsoever," he stated mater-of-factly.

His story sounded kind of similar to my own. I wasn't entirely sure I did even leave my house to head to the lake. In fact, I didn't even remember waking up. I remembered darkness until I woke up in the woods. I had a vague memory of Dr. Mizumi's face and a distinct feeling of where I lived, but, other than that...

"Hey Link!" I called, walking over to where he was standing, "Are we going to open the cave or what?"

"Yeah, just give me a sec."

"Sure..."

"Sure what?" The Goron asked, standing up and facing me.

"Oh, nothing," I replied, "We're just going to need the bomb flower."

"What do you want it for?" He asked me.

"We need to open dodongo's cavern," Arlimand replied, stepping up to the Goron.

"Oh, by all means," Said the Goron, moving out of his way.

We all walked over to the bomb flower and reached for it. We collectively knocked heads and cried out in unison. Arlimand laughed as Link and I sat down to rub our heads with tears in our eyes.

"Okay," Link said to Arlimand, "you go after it."

"Okay, but why me?" Arlimand asked with a curious expression.

"Yeah, why not me?" I asked.

Link sighed, "Okay, Hylia, but if you can't get it, leave it to Arlimand."

I nodded and stood up. I pulled at the bomb flower. Nothing. It didn't even budge.

"What in the hell?" I asked it reproachfully.

"All right, step aside, I'll get it," he said stepping up to the flower.

There was a slight popping sound as it disconnected from the plant and, quite suddenly, what could be called its fuse lit.

"Wait!" Link said, "I wanna do it!"

"All right but hurry before it explodes," he replied holding the bomb straight out.

Link took the bomb out of Arli's hands, his long blond hair blowing in the breeze under his hat. I stood again and moved out of the way as the fuse on the bomb got too short. He threw the bomb over the side, and the fuse hit the fruit of the flower and it blew up in mid air. It knocked Link backwards and onto me, and his momentum knocked me into Arlimand who hit the wall. Link's hair had been burned away so dramatically, he almost looked like he'd gotten a really pathetic haircut.

"Uh, Link?" I said.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"Get off."

"Sorry," He said, getting up.

"Let me do it."

"Have fun" he replied, gesturing to the bombs.

"Uh... Don't you remember trying? Or did your impact with me knock your brains loose?" Arlimand said.

It was true he was built like a rock, but I didn't want to give up whether or not my brains had been 'knocked loose'. I gave a "harrumph" and moved to Link's side. Arlimand walked up to another bomb flower, picked it, and just threw it off the side.

"Show off,"I muttered.

Link nodded.

"Well, let's get this over with and get that stone," He said stepping past us and starting down the trail.

I turned to Link, "So, what do you think? Truce? I think we can trust him."

"If you think so," Navi said from Link's hat.

Link nodded and he started off. I nodded at the Goron and followed suit.

The rocks on the ground where the boulder had exploded were scattered halfway down to Kakariko when we got there.

"Was the explosion really that big?" Arlimand asked, surprised.

"Guess so," said Link.

"Yeah, well, let's not just stand here twiddling our thumbs, let's go," I said.

In truth, I just wanted to get it over with. I was scared half to death, but I knew I couldn't avoid it, so I hurried the guys. Maybe, if we just blew the dragon up with one of those bomb flowers, we wouldn't have to do much. When our eyes had finally adjusted to the dark of the cavern and I'd managed to get the butterflies out of my stomach, I found out just how wrong I was in assuming that we wouldn't have to do much.

"What the hell?" I asked, again reproachfully.

There was a wall blocking the rest of our entrance to the caverns.

"Well, this blows my theory to hell, doesn't it?" I said.

"Just a lot," Arlimand replied, experimentally tapping the wall.

"How about we blow it up?" asked Link, indicating more bomb flowers to our right.

"And blow ourselves up with it?" asked Navi, "Didn't you see what the bomb flowers did to that boulder?"

"If you have any better ideas, now would be a good time, fairy," Arlimand replied.

Navi popped out of Links hat and began to chase Arli around the cavern, yelling at him about us being the heroes.

"Hylia, can I use that bottle?" Arlimand asked.

I searched my bag in the dark, but couldn't find the bottle.

"Sorry," I said, "I must have left it on that table."

Hearing this, Navi stopped chasing Arlimand around the cavern and hid in Link's hat again. Link, Arli, and I looked at each other in silence for about five minutes. We shattered the silence by breaking up into laughter.

"Shut up!" Navi yelled from Link's hat, but this time she didn't pop out.

"So, if we have no other ideas we could use that. The problem is we would all need shields to protect..."

Before Arli could finish his sentence, a huge, rumbling roar from the other side of the wall made me jump and scream like a little girl. Rumbling footsteps shook the entrance to the cavern, and all the light was snuffed by a large boulder blocking the entrance.

"Who turned off all the lights?" Link yelled in surprise.

"Does anyone have a light?" Arlimand asked suddenly.

The rumbling became pounding, and the pounding became equivalent to an earthquake, even Arlimand's cocky expression became a look closer akin to fright. The earthquake soon shook the walls of the caverns as if something was pounding heavily on the wall.

"SHIT!" I yelled as the wall shattered fiercely.

All of us were fortunate enough not to get smashed beneath the falling rocks, but none of us was spared the fright of the huge monster behind it, illuminated by the lava pits behind it.

"I think we found Dodongo," Arli said, his voice shaking as much as the ground.

"I think so!" I yelled, dodging on of Dodongo's huge paws.

"Where the hell is it's weak point?" called Link.

I ran around the side of the monster where Link was to make sure he was okay. He was, he was just trying to swat at King Dodongo's tail with his dinky little sword.

"No clue! Arli?"

"I'm not entirely sure myself, I would go for the eyes, but the underbelly may be good as well," He called, trying to fight it hand to hand.

The memory of Link suggesting we blow the wall up rang in my head and gave me an idea.

"Stay here," I told Link.

King Dodongo roared as Arlimand pulled one of its scales off. That gave me another idea.

"Hey, Arli!" I called.

"What?," he asked dodging a massive paw.

"Gimme a hand over here, I've got an idea!"

"Right!" He said excitedly, seeing where I was standing.

He ran up to me and helped me pull a bomb flower out of its patch with an inaudible pop.

"I think you know what to do, Mr. Strong Man!" I said, stepping into his hands, "Link! Stab it in it's foot!"

Link gave me a look in the darkness, but the look faded as he realized what Arlimand and I were doing. He stabbed the monolithic creature in the foot, causing it to roar.

"Ready?" I yelled to Arli, "We don't have much time!"

"I'm ready when you are!" He called back.

"NOW!" I yelled at the apex of King Dodongo's roar.

I felt myself be lifted up, then soar with the greatest of ease. I saw King Dodongo's ugly mug point right at me and I tossed the bomb flower in to its mouth.

"Eat this, bitch!" I heard from below me as I threw the bomb.

SCORE 1 FOR THE GOOD GUYS! I tossed it in the creatures mouth, and it swallowed the bomb just as it exploded. I landed carefully on the ground about three meters away as Dodongo exploded.


	7. Chapter 7 More Spiritual Stones to Find?

**Chapter 7 **

**"More Spiritual Stones To Find?"**

Celebrating, I ran up to Link and Arli who were standing on the other side of the cave and, for some reason, hugged both of them.

"We did it!" I yelled in their ears, pulling away.

"So we did" Arlimand said in half disbelief.

'You didn't have to yell' Link's thoughts rang in my head.

'Sorry,' I thought back, 'I'm just a little excited.'

"I can see that," Link said out loud.

"See what?" Arlimand replied, noticing the pause, "What am I missing?"

"Quite a lot in the brains department," I said.

This made Link chuckle.

"At least I'm not the one who nearly got us blown up by a bomb flower," Arlimand shot back

"Well, to get out, I think we'll have to nearly get blown up again," I said.

"Or we could explore," Link said from where he stood at the entrance to most of the rest of the cavern.

"I like that idea better," Arlimand said, "I don't have any kind of shield to protect me from the blast."

"What, those rock-hard muscles are flammable?" I shot.

"You would know how hard they are more than I would," he replied "but as for flammability, I don't know but I don't want to find out."

"Okay then, hot-stuff," I jeered at both Link and Arli, "Let's see what's in there."

The room ahead of us was very dark, dimly lit by only a few lava pools bubbling freely in the cavern. As we entered, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and turned that way, to only see something that looked vaguely phallic in its silhouetted statuesque form. But whatever it was, it was gone now. As we passed one of the lava pools, I saw that movement out of the corner of my eye. Someone yelled in surprise.

"Did you see it!" I called.

"See what?" Arli asked, quickly positioning himself for a fight.

"That!" I said, pointing invisibly in the darkness.

Link stopped just short of a lava pit.

"Y'know, now that you mention it," he said, his voice vibrating, "I did see something..."

I half wondered why his voice was vibrating before I heard the sound. Anyone who's been in an area with a geyser knows the sound. A restrained hissing noise, and I knew it meant trouble if you stood on it. I looked to Link in the dim light and he was standing on something raised. I pulled him away before giving off a restrained vocalization of fright. Sure enough, it was a geyser, and a jet of steam blasted off some pieces of rock exactly where Link stood. The mist was illuminated by a lava pit on the opposite side of the cavern. As I'd pulled Link away from the geyser, we'd both fallen down from the sheer suddenness of me pulling on him. This time, Link caught himself from falling by putting his hands out, but the problem was...

"Link..." I said, suppressing the urge to slap him, "get your hands off my breasts."

My back was on the ground, and Links knees were digging painfully into my thighs, his hands had kept him from smacking his head again, but now they were halfway down my chest on my barely developing breasts. Navi popped out of Links hat again and was yelling at him about how to treat a lady and about getting off me now. This time, I actually agreed with her. As I opened my mouth to yell at Link, too, I felt myself swept up by a muscular arm and be freed from Links unintentional grope by another. I was turned around over a shoulder, and I realised that Arlimand was carrying us away. Before I had time to wonder why, a bright blue stream of something shot the ground where Link and I had been seconds before.

"Not a good time for chit-chat," Arli said after his short sprint away, setting us down, "maybe we should save that for when we get out of here."

I suppressed another urge to slap Link and stood up, brushing myself off. I looked around. There were more lava pits here, and, I guessed, more geysers. This chamber was lit a little better than the last, and, from what I could see, was significantly smaller. There were more statues here, and I hoped these weren't more beamos. I judged their shape, and they weren't. They looked like squat little devils from where I stood, so I took a few tentative steps towards them, avoiding the lava. They looked more like bulls standing upright from this angle, and they were carrying shields. The light emitting from the molten rock before one of them gave it an eerie look that made me shiver slightly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Arlimand give a small jump.

"Weird," he muttered, "This one looked like it moved just barely."

They were Armos, monsters that only came alive once you attacked them. It was impossible that it'd moved, since, before you nudged them even in the slightest, which they registered as an attack, they were made of stone. I was careful not to even brush against them as I examined why there were three Armos standing in a semi-circle. As I got to one side of the Armos in front of me, I caught a glimpse of what they were standing around.

"Hey guys!" I called, "These three are guarding a chest!"

"A chest? How do we get to it without touching them?" Arli asked, his head cocked slightly to one side.

"I think it's a challenge," Link said, "Kind of like painting a floor."

I gave him a look, "Why the ihell/i would you paint a floor?"

"Well, if it's a challenge we better get to it," Arli commented, "but you are telling us the painting the floor story after we get out of here," he said firmly, still grinning.

I continued to walk in a semicircle around the Armos, searching for some way to get the chest that they were guarding. Not even my scrawny arm could fit between the Armos, much less Link's arm or Arli's. Far less would Arlimand's arm fit. I began to tap one finger on my other arm. There seemed no alternative, we'd just have to fight these damned things.

"So, what do we do? It looks like we'll just have to fight them," I said.

"Well then, better get it over with," Arli said punching his fists together, "Lets see if I can make some rubble."

"Better yet," Link called from the other side of the cavern where he'd been exploring after the floor comment, "How about we blow them up?"

I could hear Navi let loose with an exaggerated sigh as Link held up a large bag.

"What? Are you crazy?" I yelled, "This room's tiny! We'll explode, too!"

"Not to mention the geysers!" Arlimand commented, frustrated.

I think, in all honesty, we were more afraid of the geysers than the lava pits. At least we could see the lava pits bubbling and glowing like some witch's cauldron, but the geysers were an invisible bomb implanted in the ground, and if you didn't look where you stepped, you were likely to get burned.

"Can't you come up with a better plan, Link?" I asked.

"Can you?"

This made me pause.

"No, not really."

"Well, if we don't have any choice get behind me, when it blows," Arli replied.

"You'll get killed!" I said in shock.

"Better me than the ones who can save Hyrule," He pointed out, matter of factly.

"I won't stand for that," Link and I said in unison, pounding our feet on the ground.

"Then what do you suggest? Your deku shields will burn up in the blast."

Link and I looked at each other and grinned. We turned back to Arlimand.

"Better them than the ones who can save Hyrule," We pointed out, again in unison.

"How are you going to set the bombs in that kind of position? iHylia's/i arm can barely fit through."

"Kind of like how we beat King Dodongo," I said, "Pick me up and I'll drop them."

"Won't that blow up the chest?" Link asked.

"Oh yeah..."

Arlimand thought for a moment before speaking, "Well, we don't care so much about the chest as much as what's in it. If the statues are guarding it like that, it must be important, if so, it should also be able to withstand the blast."

"I think that makes logical sense," I said, nodding.

"If you guys are sure..." Link said hesitantly, handing me the bag.

i'You stand back'/i I thought to Link, i'No use in us/i all igetting blown up/i'

Link took a step back and prepared his deku shield, and I motioned to Arlimand to help me set the bombs. He hoisted me onto his shoulder and helped me balance. I grabbed three bombs out of the bag and tossed them onto the chest. Arli and I booked it back to where Link was and I pulled out my shield to defend against the blast.

The shields defended us from the majority of the blast, but the heat wave was so fierce that it sent a wave of fire our way that destroyed them and singed my eye brows. That's what I get for looking over my shield to watch the Armos turn to rubble. I looked at Arli, he was darkened by the heatwave, and part of his hair was burning. I tiptoed, licked my fingers, and put it out. He lowered his crossed arms to reveal an x on his face were the fireball missed.

"Well that worked, but remind me to get a shield next time we're in town" he said, tightly, grinning anyway.

Link nodded and walked up to the now-destroyed-chest. Arli and I followed suit and began to dig through the ashes and rubble. A shiny glimmer caught my eye in the dim, red light. I went to pick it up and found that it was very heavy.

"Hey, check this out," I said straining, "It's really heavy."

"What is it, Hylia?" Link asked.

"Not sure. Arli, help me lift this."

"I could help, too!" Link said offendedly.

"Fine, help me out, Link."

"Okay," Arli began grabbing the object, "lets set this on the ground and dust it off."

I nodded and we all pulled it up and set it as near a lava pit as we dared. It was a finely crafted shield, sturdy and strong with the Hyrulian symbol emblazoned on the front. It was worn slightly from the blast and had some singes on the leather straps on the back. It must have been sitting against the side of the chest when we blew it, along with the Armos, up.

"Doesn't look like iI'll/i be able to lift it," I said, "But you might, Link."

"Don't you remember? We're the same in strength," He replied.

Oh yeah... Well that blew my theory to hell.

"Well I'll see if I can use it then we blow our way back out of here," Arlimand eyed the straps, "but first things first, does anyone have small pieces of leather to replace the straps with?"

"Not really," I said, eyeing my dress and my boots.

"Not on me," said Link, "But Hylia likes to walk around without her boots on."

"Don't even go there, young man," I said sternly.

"You sound like his mother," Arli chuckled.

"Oh, shut up," I snapped jokingly.

"Did any parts of the straps survive from your shields?"

I opened my hand that was still clutching what was left of my shield, so did Link. Well, there wasn't much left, but it was better than nothing.

"About two inches," Link and I said in unison.

"Well, its better than nothing, I can probably use that on for each hand just to get out of here" he replied, "there is an opening there should we follow it or just get out of here?"

"I vote we continue going," Link said.

"I concur. Let's see what else is in here."

Navi gave an audible whimper.

"You're not scared are you, Navi?" I jeered.

"Of course not!" She yelled, popping out of Links hat, "I just want to leave..."

"So do I, but I don't want us to get blown up in the process," Arli commented, stepping toward the opening, "and if this gives us that option, then so be it."

"That aside, we might find more shields," Link pointed out, "Hylia and I lost ours, and I feel really bad about it."

"Me too, but it's better than getting blown up," I replied, "So let's go."

Link and Arlimand nodded and took off. After a while of waiting to see if anything else happened, I followed.

This next room contained one chest and nothing else. No interest here, besides the one hole in the ceiling that let 'sunshine' through; actually, it was night. I tried the chest; it was locked, so I turned to Link.

"Hey, can I borrow your sword?"

"What? Not going to just take it?" He joked, "What would you do with it?"

"Break the lock of course," I said.

Link gave what could be mistaken for a whimper of reproach.

"Dude, do you see that sword?" Arli said, "it would break on contact with this lock, luckily you have me with you," he finished producing a couple of small pieces of metal.

"Ooooh, picking the lock!" I said with curiosity.

"That's an interesting talent," Link commented as Arli picked at the lock.

The lock clicked as the top of the chest popped up slightly. I pushed up on the lid and looked in to find the chest full of bombs.

"That's an impressive talent," I commented absentmindedly, looking at the bombs and getting an idea.

"What are you thinking?" Arlimand said worried, "I don't have to have telepathy to know its not good, it's all over your face."

"She's thinking about how big a blast we could make with this many bombs."

"How far do you think we could drag this?" I asked, grinning.

"As if one bomb wasn't bad enough," Arlimand replied, "do you not remember what happened to your shields with one? I don't even think this one will hold up with that many!"

"Well, what happens if we stand somewhere else, like this room when we blow them up?"

"You're still crazy," Link said.

"The whole cave could collapse and we could die!" Arlimand replied pointedly.

"We could... I'm out of ideas," I gave in.

"Link, now that we have curbed that disaster why don't you fill the bag and let us get out of here," Arli said.

Link nodded and took my precious bombs away. He put as many of them as would fit in the bag and grabbed my arm.

"Come on, Hylia," He said.

Link half lifted, half dragged me out of the room with Arli walking behind shaking his head in amusement. I, on the other hand, was sticking my tongue out at both of them and slowly trotting behind Link, both ashamed and upset that they would double team me like this. Damn them, the both of them.

"You know I can hear your thoughts," Link said, "and I refuse to be damned. I would imagine Arlimand would say the same."

"Indeed I would, and if you keep your tongue out like that you might catch some guano," Arlimand replied.

I raspberried, "I highly doubt that there are bats in these caves."

Just then, a Keese shrieked above us as if in reply.

"But..." I said, sticking my tongue back in my mouth, "There might be Keese."

"Ready your shield, Arli," Link said, "Hylia, ready your slingshot."

"When did you get to be the boss?" I asked, readying my slingshot anyway.

Arli and Link chuckled at me.

"Oh to hell with both of you."

"It's pretty dark out there," Arli commented, bringing to mind the night sky through the opening, "What say, we beat these guys go back there and rest for a bit before blowing the entrance?"

"Well, I like the idea of rest," Link said, "But Hylia'll have to calm down if we do."

"I am calm!" I fumed.

Okay, so, I lied.

Truth be told, I didn't want to calm down. That would mean I'd get to spend the night smelling like dirt, sweat, and brimstone with two boys who smelled of their own version of sweat, dirt, and brimstone. We smelled like we'd not bathed in weeks, which, for the dark-skinned, fair-eyed young man following Link dragging me, I wouldn't imagine to be too far from the truth.

Link gave an audible snicker.

"Don't you dare say anything," I warned.

"About what?" Arlimand asked, curious, "never mind, it doesn't matter. I for one, would like to be able to see what is on the other side of the boulder when we can actually see."

"Fine, whatever. Oh! Got your six!" I said and shot a fire Keese that was approaching him from behind.

But I aimed too high, the seed killed the Keese and it went spiraling down in flames, but I watched the seed ricochet off the ceiling and come towards Arlimand. He let out a yelp of pain as the seed collided with his calf.

"I said I had your six..." I said sheepishly, "but I didn't mean that. Sorry."

"It's all right, it's just a welt," he replied rubbing the spot and wincing slightly, "Link! above you!"

Link and I turned in unison and raised our weapons. I shot a seed at the Keese just as Link swiped his sword. I hit the stupid thing, and Link knocked it half way across the cavern to land in an open mouth of a geyser.

"Perfect shot!" I celebrated.

"Nice teamwork, I don't think he's coming back out," Arlimand quipped, stepping toward us and patting our shoulders.

"No need to be a smart ass," I said, walking toward the entrance of the cavern, "Besides. If we're going to get along, I'll be the smart ass, thank you."

I didn't have to look to know that Link and Arli both rolled their eyes at me. I examined the boulder and acted unfazed. Really, I was trying not to laugh, but I was acting unfazed anyway.

"So, Link, what do you think? Think he should come along with us?" I mused out loud.

"Sure do. He's proven himself tenfold."

"So do I. He's proven that he can be a pretty cool friend, too," I said, turning to Arlimand and grinning, "So, wanna come?"

"I would love to," he said nonchalantly.

I could see by the sparkle in his eyes, even in the dim light, that he wanted to jump and shout for joy but he was holding it back. I guess the Gerudo looked down on their slaves expressing joy. I was liking them less and less.

"Well, I think we're safe. I think that was the last of the Keese," I said searching the ceiling of the cavern for more.

"Great," Link said, "But where would we sleep?"

"If we use the skylight room, the sun shining in should keep us from oversleeping," Arli reasoned, as much with himself as with us, "and I'm used to sleeping on the hard ground so you guys can use my blankets."

"Good enough for me," I said.

Link nodded, so we took off towards the skylight room. In the 'danger room', as I called it, I got the chance to blow up a few Beamos, and Arli had to pull me away from a few geysers, but other than that, the trip was pretty boring. We checked around the skylight room to find that it was clear. After securing the room, Arli set down his blankets and we all fitfully tried to go to sleep. Morning came far too soon after I fell asleep for my tastes.

"WELL DONE!" cheered a very happy Darunia, "You've rid the cave of Dodongos!"

The blast had nearly knocked the three of us senseless, and the sunlight stung our eyes. We squinted at a crowd of happy Gorons with worry lines crossing each and every face. Darunia even looked like he'd stayed up all night pacing for his eyes were blurry and bloodshot and his feet were red and swollen. I was half sure that Darunia had spent the night kicking the boulder to try and let us out, and communicated this to Link.

"We're just glad we survived!" Arli sighed, indicating the explosion that opened the cave the second time.

"Hey, kids, I like you! How's about we become sworn siblings?" he asked.

'OBSESSIVE!' I thought.

"Isn't there some big ceremony for that? We don't have the time... to-" Link said, cringing.

"No, no, no big ceremony," Darunia interrupted, "just take this as a show of my friendship."

He handed Arlimand a shiny ruby as big as my hand, surrounded in a "V" shaped frame of gold. I swiped it, and put it in my backpack. Arli stuck his tongue out and Link looked at me as if he wanted it, but didn't get to say a thing because of Darunia.

"HEY EVERYONE!" he called to the other Gorons, "LET'S SEE OFF OUR NEW SIBLINGS!"

The Gorons approached us all slowly, and, let me tell you, there are three differences between Gorons and boulders: One, gorons are alive; two, boulders don't stand up; three, a difference of about twelve IQ points in the boulder's favor. All the Gorons offered us a simultaneous hug, and Arli, Link, and I simply looked at each other.

"Oh, crap," Arli, said loud enough for me and Link but too quiet for anyone else.

I squeezed my eyes shut, "DO NOT WANT!" I yelled as I booked back up the mountain.

None of us particularly wanted to be squeezed to death, and I didn't care what direction I ran in, so long as I got away from the Gorons. I heard footsteps running behind me, so I ran harder. The footsteps also ran harder behind me, so I ran as hard as I could and squeezed my eyes shut again. The footsteps began to run as hard as they could, too, and I began to panic.

What if it was more Armos?

Or the Gorons?

Or King Dodongo's ghost?

Or-

Before the last thought could be spoken inside my head, I ran into something sturdy and small and was run into by something sturdier and large.

'Ow... pain... agony...' I thought, 'I'm dead. I'm dead I'm done for. Bury me near my cabin I'm dead.'

'Relax, Hylia. It's just us,'I heard in Arlimand's voice, 'You're not dead. You ran into a fence, and I ran into you to keep you from running away again.'

I heard Arlimand give a sigh of exasperation behind me and speak his thoughts.

"Are you calm now, Hylia?" He asked still keeping me between him and the fence.

"N...No... You said your thoughts... I never said that I was dead..." I stuttered, staring at the gorge between the cliffs.

"Didn't you hear her say she thought she was dead?" He asked, getting off me to turn to Link.

I could feel Link shake his head.

"She thought the words," He said.

"So, what you are telling me is that I have somehow gained this ability that you two already had?" he said cock-eyed, "You're not pulling my leg are you?"

I got off the fence and shook my head, "Nope. Didn't say it," I said with feigned calm.

"All right then," he began, insecurity tainting his voice, "Where to next?"

Link spoke up first, "Well, there are some boulders blocking a path up the mountain, we could see what that's about."

"Sounds like a plan, but won't that mean we have to go back through the Gorons?" Arli said looking back the way we had come.

I turned to Link, and he nodded.

"We have a trick," I said slyly.

Link grinned, "Though it might be easier with you around, Arli."


	8. Chapter 8 The Great Fairy

**Chapter 8**

"**The Great Faerie, Nicknames, and issues with body images"**

"I like it, but if it would be easier for the two of you to lift me then me to pull the two of you up," Arli said eying the cliff.

"I get the feeling that it'd require us to throw you, though," I said, following suit.

Link turned to me, "I think we could manage."

"So long as you can get me to about there," Arli said pointing about five feet short of the top, "I think I could climb the rest of the way, It looks there are plenty of places to put my hands and feet. Also when the two of you come one may want to grab the others ankles, it looks higher than you described the bridge."

The cliff was a sheer drop from a small mesa, and a tall climb up for three ten year olds. If each stood on the others shoulders, we would stand just about two feet taller than the top of the cliff, but that made us around sixteen feet tall. We'd be able to have Arli reach just under ten feet up, leaving him to climb about five feet then I'd have to stand on Link's shoulders and he'd have to grab my ankles for Arlimand to pull us up so we could climb the stairs that lead to the very top of Death Mountain.

"Well," Link said, "The best we can do is try."

"We can, but..." I hesitated.

"Hey, I'm strong enough to pull myself up from there and I'm sure I can pull both of you up, I'm willing to give it a try," Arli said shrugging, "besides, how else will we know what is up there?"

"True enough," Link said.

I still hesitated.

"Come on" Arli said looking at me, "the longer we wait, the less sure we will be."

Link and I knelt on the ground and laced together our fingers, and prepped our hands for each of Arli's feet. He stepped into them, putting a hand against the wall to stabilize himself. Mentally, we counted to three and tossed him into the air. At the peak of his flight, he found hand holds allowing him to stop his descent. Slowly, he made his way up losing footing only twice, causing me to shriek, and pulled himself on top of the mesa.

'_So who's going to be on whose shoulders?'_ I heard in Arlimand's voice in my head, apparently he believed more in this new-found ability than he had let on.

'_I will!'_ I thought.

'_No! Me!'_ Link thought back.

And so the argument ensued.

"Fine!" I yelled, "Rochambeau!"

"Fine!" Link retorted, holding out his fist.

I held out mine.

"Ro-cham-beau!" we yelled in unison.

I held out scissors, he held out rock.

"DAMN IT!" I yelled.

"So, can you even lift me?" Link taunted.

"Yes," I stated firmly and angrily.

"Oh? You? Little miss pampered princess' cousin?"

"Screw you."

"I bet it's because I was going easy on you that you beat me in arm wrestling."

"I'll prove it!" I said, and made a running jump at the wall.

I caught two foot holds and a hand hold and proceeded to prove my strength. Little bastard didn't believe I was as strong as I was, so I was going to show him up. I caught onto another hand hold, then another, found new foot holds, then more, and before I knew it, I was on top of the mesa.

"SEE?" I yelled down at him, "I'm stronger than you think!"

Link raspberried up at me and proceeded to attempt to climb the cliff himself. Needless to say, he failed. Looking down at this, I had to laugh at his pitiful attempts to imitate me. I could feel Arlimand standing behind me giving me an amazed stare.

"All right, well how do we get Link up here now?" he said.

"Well, you could always lower me over and I could help pull him up," I suggested.

"No way in hell!" Link yelled up at us, "You are NOT dragging me up like some kind of toy!"

"DO YOU HAVE A BETTER SUGGESTION?" I yelled as loud as I could.

"Well, I could swing the two of you sideways, pulling you up and over," Arli suggested.

"I refuse to be thrown around," I said.

"JUST HELP ME UP!" Link yelled.

"Do you want to hit your head again because we didn't think it through?" Arli shouted back.

'I'll shut up,' came Link's thoughts.

"So if we just pull him up and over we increase his chance of injuring one of you, but it would take less energy," Arli reasoned, "On the other hand, if we swing you two, there is less chance of injury, so long as you don't let go, but it takes more energy. What do you think?" He asked me.

"I'm pretty winded from climbing, really," I said, "it took more energy than you'd think."

"Well, I will be exerting most of the force, all you would have to do would be to hold on to him," Arli said, "is Link able to climb this? I don't have any idea how to help him climb without rope of some kind, You?"

"I could always have him by the wrist if worst comes to worst," I said, shrugging.

"I don't like the sound of this!" Link called.

"Do either of you have a length of rope?" Arli asked.

I shrugged again, "Not me."

"I've got some rope," Link called, "I'll send it up with Navi."

The small Faerie struggled to fly with the rope up to the top of the Mesa.

"Link!" She strained, "This is heavy! What is it /bmade/b of?"

"It's just wool rope," Link called, "It's just sturdy! You can manage!"

Navi muttered something I assumed was an insult, but I decided against my first impulse, and didn't say anything about it.

"Thank you" Arli said, taking the rope, as Navi fell to the stones at his feet, "Now, lets tie one end to your belt, and the other to me so if needed you can grab him and I can pull both of you up. What do you think?" he asked me.

"Good idea. Can we tie him to the fence afterwards?" I said, still upset about the Rochambeau.

"What did she say?" Link shouted up to us

"I think we should take this one step at a time," Arli chuckled, tying one end around his waist.

He handed the other end to me, and, once again to prove Link that I am more than just a pampered cousin to the princess, I looped the rope around the small fence to our right, one bit around my belt, and climbed head-first down the cliff face. It was harder this way, because I had to push myself upward with my hands and hang onto things by my feet, but I managed to get to Link and tie the rope around his waist.

"Hold on tight," I said reluctantly.

"Okay then, Skulltulla."

"I hate you."

"I know."

'Ready,' I thought, and Arlimand began to pull on the rope.

Despite the passing urge, I held on tight to Link's wrists and didn't let him drop.

"Don't you dare drop me, Skulltulla," Link warned.

"Call me that again and I will drop you," I retorted.

We sat on top of the Mesa, panting like dogs, and stretching our joints. Link sat rubbing his head where he'd smacked it.

"That really hurt, Skulltulla," he said.

"Oh, it was my fault? You're the one who flinched!"

"Link, that probably won't be the last time you hit it," Arlimand said, pointing to the path ahead of us where boulders were falling from the sort-of erupting volcano.

"Just for this occasion," I said, pulling Link's sword off his back and unsheathing it, "I hereby dub thee Sir Accident Prone."

Arlimand chuckled, "Fitting."

Link just looked astonished as he put his sheathed sword on his back. He stuck his tongue out at us. Arlimand shrugged and it showed off his arm muscles considerably. As Arli lowered his hands, a particularly large boulder landed not ten feet from us, causing Link and Arli to jump, and me to shriek.

"Methinks we should go," I said quickly, and the others merely nodded.

Arlimand pulled out his shield and looked at it, "I don't know if it will hold up against the boulders, but it's better than nothing," he said shifting his gaze to us.

"C'mon then, guys" I said, and huddled underneath the large shield Arlimand held in the air.

Link begrudgingly huddled beneath the shield on Arli's other side, and we sprinted as fast as the slowest of us could go to escape the rain of massive boulders. I hate to admit it, but I was the slowest, but, of course, I had the shortest legs. Link tripped and stumbled, but didn't fall all the way, thus reinforcing the dubbing "Accident Prone". Several boulders landed squarely on the shield, but Arli didn't so much as flinch. I knew the boy was strong for a fellow ten year old, but I had no idea just how strong until this very point in time.

"I see more boulders up ahead! Get a bomb ready, Link" Arli said.

"A bomb? Are you nuts?"

"What are you scheming?" I yelled over the roar of the volcanic explosion.

"Well we need to get through those boulders, if we are to keep going!"

"If we wait, we'll die, if we blow those things up, WE'LL DIE!" I yelled.

"Can't we go around...?" Navi whined.

"There is a sheer cliff on one side and a sheer drop on the other side! There is no way around!" Arli replied

"I'm not going to blow it up!" Link protested, "Can we climb it?"

"And die by crushing boulders?" I screamed.

"If you keep fighting here," Navi screamed just as loudly, "We'll die by crushing boulders anyway!"

"Or I'll die by crashing into them! THINK OF SOMETHING!" Link said.

Just then, an image of Arlimand ramming the shield into the boulders popped into my head, and I could almost feel the grin radiating off of him.

"Oh HELL no!" I told him.

"Grab on or get left in the dust" he called pulling the shield down in front of him.

A raindrop hit me in the nose, and I didn't get even time to look up at the sky as Arlimand took off, racing shield-first towards the boulders. Link and I booked it after him and...

**CRASH**

Arlimand broke through two boulders at once with the now-crumpled shield, and stood beneath a ledge with a huge grin on his face.

"Well, how was that?" He asked cockily as Link and I hid beneath the ledge.

"Better than your previous idea, but it was still stupid," I replied.

"It was cool, but I agree with Skulltulla," Link panted.

"Well the boulders aren't falling here, but it's starting to rain. There is a cave there we can duck into," Arli commented pointing to an opening on our left.

As if on cue, I sneezed.

"I'm cold anyway, let's go," Link said, nodding.

The cave wasn't much warmer, but at least we weren't iwet/i and cold. Besides, there were torches here to give us light and some warmth. At the back end of the cave, there was a small pool lit by six torches, and on the ground was a gold-plated carving of the Sacred Triangles, the Triforce. The symbol of the Royal Family. That meant one thing.

'This is a Great Faerie's Fountain', I thought in awe.

'Whose?' Arli's voice spoke in my mind.

'A Great Faerie,' came Link's voice, 'They're the protectors of Hyrule!'

'Okay, I got that much, but can someone explain what they are?' Arli's voice replied.

"It'd be easier to show you," Link said aloud.

"Okay..."

"Cover your ears."

Arlimand and I did as we were told. Link played the melody that makes us sleep, and...

Well, he should have said "cover your eyes".

As Link finished the song and Arlimand and I removed our hands from our ears, a piercing laugh filled the room, and out of the pool emerged a lady with flowing red hair, ruby red lips, eyes as blue as the deepest sapphires, and skin of ivory. Only two things seemed terribly wrong with this picture.

She was at least ten times the proper height of a woman.

-and-

She was naked from head to her calves. The only thing she was wearing was a pair of boots.

"Welcome, warriors and heroes three of Hyrule, Link, Hylia, and Arlimand," she cooed.

'How the hell does she know my name?' Arli's voice sounded.

'I told you; she's a Great Faerie' sounded Link's thoughts as if that explained everything.

I felt too ill to respond. The room was spinning and I felt light headed. Another crazy thing spoke and knew my name. I went over to the corner and sat down, thinking i'crazy naked bitch knows my name!'/i a few times causing Arli to snort in laughter, his hands over his eyes.

As I figured, none of all this bothered the Great Faerie in the slightest, and she gave us each an ability of our own and sent us on our way. Much to my chagrin, she didn't tell any of us what our new abilities were before she disappeared, so that meant we'd have to find out on our own.

"Well that was weird. New abilities?" Arli commented.

"I think the word you're looking for is 'traumatic'," I replied, "Link, _never_ do that again."

"And if you absolutely have to, at least let us leave the fountain first, or at least turn away," Arli said.

"Or fall asleep," I added.

"What the giant owl?" Arli said, stopping just outside the cave entrance.

I stopped short, "What 'what the giant owl'?"

"There is a giant owl perched right outside this cave," Arli commented, pointing, "I think I have seen it watching me in the village once or twice, but I'm not sure."

"Well, you are an observant one," said Kaepora Gaebora, "aren't you, Arlimand?"

Arlimand's eyes went wide and paled and began to shake. He looked like he was going to faint.

'Giant, talking owl k-knows my name,' he said a few times in his mind, 'How does he know my name?'

'Relax, Arli, it's just Kaepora Gaebora, he's been following us,' I thought back.

'Okay, he's been following you but how does he know my name?' He emphasized the thought.

'I said he's been following us not just me and Link,' I emphasized.

"Now if you two are done bickering," the big owl said, "Maybe you can hear what I said?"

I turned to my left to see Arli's head tilt back at the same time the world went black.

"Hylia! Arli!" I heard before everything was black.

I awoke to the sound of cuccoos and someone playing a harmonica. There was a rope around my waist and a weight at my back. I felt disoriented, the bright sunlight hurt my eyes, and my head was heavy. I tried to stand up, but the weight was more than I could lift.

"Whaaaaa...?" I began to ask.

"Relax, you're in Kakariko," said the blurry form of Kaepora Gaebora, "Link tied you and Arlimand together and I carried you three here."

As if on cue, Arlimand let out a small snort.

"We passed out?" I connected the dots.

"Yes, and Link is fetching some water right now for Anju."

"Anju? The lady who cares for Cuccoos?"

Another snort came from Arli.

"That's right," The owl said as I heard approaching footsteps, "Ah, here comes Link now. I'll leave you three to your devices."

And Kaepora Gaebora took off and was gone.

"Hylia!" He said, and put on an extra burst of speed despite the large bucket he was carrying, "I thought that was your voice I was hearing!"

"Link!" I called, genuinely happy to see him, "Come untie me!"

"Coming!"

"And can you get this big lump off me? Maybe wake 'im up?" I asked, indicating Arlimand.

A cheeky grin crossed his face, and all I could think was, 'Oh shit...' And Link dumped the bucket of water over both Arlimand and me, causing Arli to wake with a start and ram his head into the back of mine.

"What? I'm not slacking I swear!," He said, suddenly frightened and looking around quickly.

"Relax, slave, you're tied up," I jeered, rubbing the back of my head.

"Oh," he sighed, "It's you guys. Hylia, if I could I would be glaring at you right now."

"Yeah, but you can't," I taunted.

"Hylia..." Link warned.

"Just untie us, Link," Arli said.

"So we can get going," I added, nodding.

"Fine..." Link said, taking out his sword and cutting through the rope, "Just no killing each other, got it?"

We nodded our heads once in agreement, smacking each other in the back of the head again.

"So, where to next?" Arli asked, rubbing his upper arms where the rope was tied.

"I believe I can answer that" called Kaepora Gaebora as he swooped down.

"Then by all means," Arli let the sentence trail.


	9. Chapter 9 Zora's Domain

**Chapter 9 **

"**Zoras Domain"**

I inched away from the edge of the hill, uncomfortable with how high it was. Reminder to myself: I hate heights.

"How're we gonna get into the place?" Link asked, totally clueless.

"Their gates don't open for anyone other than the Royal Family, remember?" I said simply, as if that explained everything, "Or did you forget what the huge owl said?"

Not that I blame him for forgetting; the owl dropped us straight from flight into the water that now ran below us while telling us what we needed to know. I wrung my hair out and did my best to wipe the drops of water off my drenched dress. It was a vain attempt for a vain reason and all for vanity.

"You know," Arli began, having just climbed up to where we were, "When I said 'by all means' I didn't mean that one," he finished, pointing to the sky.

I nodded, "And he didn't have to be rough, what with those talons and all."

"Well, Link," Arli said, "go ahead and play, better get in before it gets too late," he looked to the sun starting to sink low in the sky.

Link nodded and took out the Ocarina. He stumbled a bit after finding a rock with his foot, and played the melody. I almost didn't have time to cover my ears, but sure enough, something caused the waterfall to split open.

Arlimand picked us up and tucked us under his arms as he took a running jump into the split waterfall. The jump felt like minutes when, in actuality, it could only have been seconds. There was a split second of darkness before landing in a large cave that was well lit by torches.

"Can you put me down now?" Asked Link.

"Yeah, sorry," Arli said, gazing at a crowd of Zoras gathering around us.

"Oh my God!" I heard a few say, "That's Hylia, Princess Zelda's cousin! What's she doing here? And who're those boys?"

"I have never seen people like this, but I would think they would stick out. Why haven't I seen them?" Arli asked, staring at one of the Zoras in front of us.

"That would probably be because they're an aquatic race, and would die in the Gerudo Desert," Link said.

"Makes sense," Arli replied.

"Let's just go see King Zora, 'kay?" I asked.

I wanted nothing more than to get away from the prying eyes of these people. It looked like one of the Zora men was undressing me with his eyes, or that could have just been his face. Either way, it was creepy. I quickened up my pace as a murmur rippled through the crowd of 'Hylia's going to see the King?' and other phrases akin to that. As we past a group of Zora women, I heard one of them blow a kiss.

"Why did you do that?" One of them said.

"I like muscle-bound guys," The other explained.

I could feel Arlimand's blushing radiating from him to my left and he hid his face in his hand. The Zora woman giggled and waved her fingers, causing Arli's face to go crimson red.

"Can we move any faster?" Arli asked, his face more flushed than anyone I had ever seen.

"Gee, I dunno, my feet ireally/i hurt," I taunted.

"Hylia..." Link warned again.

"Please?" He whispered to us.

"Fine, let's haul it," I said, turning back to notice the one creepy, drooly-lookin' Zora following us, "And now?"

Arli turned to see this drooly Zora and began running away as fast as his legs could carry him. Link and I turned to each other, with matching looks of shock on our faces, and, in tandem, took off as fast as we could run, too. Problem was, I was still the slowest, and the drooly-lookin' Zora was a pretty fast stalker... Erm, I mean walker. I turned my gaze just in time to see Arlimand and Link take a quick turn down a side corridor, and had just enough time to do so as well. I pressed my back against the side wall and hoped drooly-creepy-pedophile-stalker-guy would keep running and fall off one of the cliffs. I looked down at my burning, aching feet to make sure my boots weren't on fire from the friction of running.

Much to my chagrin, after looking back up, there was the drooly guy.

"Hey there, cute stuff," he said in an oily voice.

I turned to the wall far from us, "Sometimes, I think the gods hate me," I mused.

"Hylia!" I heard from somewhere down the hall.

I pointed off in a random direction away from the voice, and drooly-creepy-pedophile-stalker-guy looked that way. I hauled ass while he wasn't looking in the direction of the voice. As I ran past one cave, a pair of arms reached out and pulled me in. One covered my mouth to keep me quiet, the other grabbed the back of my belt to keep me from hitting my legs on the ground. I attempted to scream and run away, anyway.

"Shh," Arli's voice came, "unless you want Mr. & Ms. Drooly to find us,"

He removed his hands.

"I think I'd rather they didn't," Link said.

"Oh what do you know? Neither made sexual advances towards you," I snapped quietly, "oh shit!"

We backed up slightly as Arlimand told us to shush. We saw two forms holding torches run past the opening. Once the forms were out of earshot, we let out a sigh of relief in unison.

"I swear I'd locked that door" mumbled a voice behind us.

We jumped and I let out a shriek that sounded remarkably like a keese. I covered my mouth for fear that Mr. and Ms. drooly would come back, and Arlimand and Link dissolved into fits of silent laughter, and I turned and shushed whoever had spoken. It'd been the shopkeeper who was lighting the lamps.

"The shop doesn't open for another fifteen minutes," he said, carrying a small hand-lamp, "but if you're hiding from someone, I suppose this is a better place than any."

"No one but a couple of drooling Zoras," Link said.

The shopkeeper nodded to himself.

"I'm sorry for my companions' lack of manners," Arli said, "and for barging in on your shop. But would you happen to know how we could possibly beg an audience with King Zora?"

"Y'know I think you rehearsed that line as a slave," I said.

Arlimand turned and glared at me.

"An audience with King Zora would take a few days to approve," the shopkeeper said.

'_Well, fuck that,' _I thought.

Arlimand glared at me again.

"What?" I wanted to know.

The shopkeeper gave me an odd look.

"Yeah, I know," I said, sheepishly, "I'm nuts."

Link held out a deku nut, "The deku kind."

I gave him an odd look.

"Shut up, I'm funny," he said.

"You just keep telling yourself that," I said.

"So, how would we apply for an audience?" Arlimand pushed.

"There's a ledger to sign," the shopkeeper said, "It's by the King's chamber."

Once we signed the ledger, we asked the Zora guarding the book how much it would take to rent a room for three in the hotel.

"That'd be 150 rupees a person," he replied emotionlessly, "do you have an adult with you?"

Arli, Link and I looked at each other.

"My Uncle is the King..." I said.

"Yeah, right, and I'm princess Zelda," the Zora said.

"No, she's my cousin. You look nothing like the ugly whore," I said.

And I turned my back and walked away toward the hotel.

"Whoa whoa whoa," Link warned, "Don't go insulting your cousin like that! She's your family!"

"That may be, she's my pampered whore of a cousin! When we were six, she stole my best guy friend!" I returned.

"And you're still bitter?" Link said.

"She still refuses to let him talk to me."

"Yeah, that would do it," he said.

"Well, that fiasco went well," Arli said sarcastically to change the subject, "How're we supposed to pay for the room?"

This caused an awkward silence between the three of us.

"Well, y'know, I could always..."

"NO" Link and I interrupted.

We knew exactly what he was going to say. He was going to suggest pick-pocketing a Zora.

"Well, do you guys have any better ideas?"

"We could earn the money," Link suggested.

"Doing what?" I wanted to know.

"Uhh..."

"You mean like room and board?" I clarified.

"Exactly what I mean," Link said.

Arlimand stood rooted to the spot with a stupid expression on his face.

'_Room-and-what-what?'_ Arlimand's thoughts came as we turned a corner.

We were searching out the hotel we'd been told about but the problem was, all the caves looked the same, and the writing on all the signs was completely unfamiliar.

"It'll be hours before we find the hotel! Why can't everyone just write in Hylian instead of having their own languages?" Arli complained loudly.

"Because that'd make things too easy," I complained back.

"Yeah, and goddesses forbid they make things easy!" Link agreed, nodding.

I looked to my left in fear that it was getting dark, and the sun was shining straight through the waterfall that acted as the Zora's front door.

"Ow..." I muttered, blinded by the sun.

"That's why you don't look straight into the sun, smart one," Link taunted.

Arli snorted in laughter

"Oh shut up," I retorted to both of them.

The next tunnel we turned down looked oddly familiar.

"On a different note," Link said, "Does this tunnel look familiar, or have I gone Deku nuts?"

He was referencing his earlier joke, but I didn't really care because I had to agree, this tunnel did look familiar.

Arli nodded and said, "maybe we should ask someone where the inn is."

"What-ho?" I asked, "A man thinking about asking for directions? Is this the end of the world?"

This earned me a 'Shut up, Hylia,' from both Arlimand and Link at the same time. I burst out into laughter, and Link and Arlimand smacked me upside the back of my head in unison.

"Ow..." I complained, rubbing the back of my head.

"Uh-oh, is it me or did Mr. and Ms. Drooly find us?" Arli said gesturing down the cave.

I turned my gaze in the direction of Arlimand's gesture.

"I think 'Uh-oh' is putting it mildly," I said, "I think 'oh shit' is what you were going for."

"Maybe, instead of discussing phrases we should hide" Link suggested, dragging us into the nearest doorway.

"Maybe that's a good idea," I whispered.

A couple minutes passed before we even dared to breathe regularly. We were about to move to look outside when someone cleared their throat behind us. Causing me to shriek like a Keese once more, and Arlimand and Link grabbed me from behind and clamped their hands over my mouth as they shushed me. I mumbled as loudly as I could in protest.

"Um... are you done screaming yet, Hylia?" Navi asked popping out from under Link's hat.

"Mhmph," I muttered beneath Arlimand and Link's hands, nodding

"May I help you?" Came a voice from behind us.

We all jumped in unison in surprise and the hands released me from their grip, as we turned to see who had spoken. A Zora stood at a front desk of something that looked shockingly like the Goron Inn where Link and I had met Arlimand. He cleared his throat again, a wet, choking sound, and repeated his earlier question. Before I could answer, Arlimand interrupted me.

"Yes, we were looking for the Inn, would this be it?" he asked, obviously having come to the same conclusion.

"Yes, this would be the place you're looking for. Will you and your parents be staying the night or for a while?" The Zora behind the counter asked.

'_I think we should tell him it's just us, I don't think there is any reason to lie to him,'_ Arli's thoughts rang in my head, _'Besides, it looks like he could use some help.'_

'_I'm thinking much the same,'_ I thought back,_ 'I mean, I don't sense any reason he wouldn't let us stay. I feel like he's a nice guy!'_

'_So the question remains, how much do we tell him? Just that we are alone? What we're doing here? Our quest?'_

"Um, actually, it's just us; we're here on an errand from the Castle Towne," Arli said

'_And so much for 'not lying' to him,'_ I thought.

'_If I told him it was from Zelda, to get the spiritual stones, nice or not he would have written us off as loonies.'_ he thought back.

'_And we're not loonies? We're three kids saving Hyrule!'_ Rang Link's thoughts.

'_If he thinks we're loonies, he's more likely to send us to an asylum than let us work for our pay,'_ Arli's thoughts played out.

'_Sometimes, I wonder if that's not where we belong...'_ I thought.

'_Hard to save Hyrule from inside a padded room...'_ Arli's thought trailed.

The Zora standing behind the counter cleared his throat again and gave us all odd looks. For some reason, I found this gesture inexplicably funny, and Link and Arlimand followed my lead in laughter.

"Sorry, don't know what came over us," Arli began, still trying to suppress laughter "Our errand involves an audience with King Zora but, we have no where to stay and little money, is there any way we can earn our stay?"

"Well," the old Zora began, "I tend to run the Inn alone. Could always use help. Y'know, room and board."

We all nodded, "Sounds good," Arli said, "just tell us what needs to be done."

"First thing's first, I need to know what you guys are good at," he asked.

"Hylia can climb like nobodies business, Arlimand is strong," Link began, ticking us off on his fingers, "And I'm..."

"He's the most energetic young man I've ever met," I interrupted.

"Wait," Asked the old man, "You're Hylia? Cousin to Princess Zelda?"

"I am, and she's sent me on official business. These two are my companions and best friends, they're under orders from the Princess to help me."

"Well then, I suppose I **have** to let you guys work for your room and board," he said, nodding to himself, "Young man, exactly how strong **are** you?"

"He ran full speed at a boulder with naught else but a shield and the boulder shattered," Link said, "We have proof!"

Arlimand pulled out the dented shield from his back and handed it to the Zora.

"Well, young man," said the Zora, "I've gotta say that I'm impressed."

Arlimand beamed, then said, "As for Hylia, she climbed a cliff using stones no one else could have possibly gripped, and Link, he's been running around all over Hyrule, and he's only been stopped once."

"By a head injury!" I said, pointing at the back of my own head.

"Gee, Hylia, don't sound so happy about it," Link teased.

"Yes, yes. I think you could definitely help me," The Zora said slowly, "Young man, we have a bar out back, and we have fights all the time, for one who can shatter a boulder, getting troublemakers out of a building should be no problem. As for you, Hylia, I hope you don't find it below you to work in the shop over there, I can never get to those top shelves, and Link, is it? I hope you wouldn't mind helping with house keeping; it can be tiring running all over the Inn."

Link blushed a little, but nodded anyway, "Sure, so long as I don't have to wear an apron..."

The Zora gave a chuckle, and we agreed to our assignments.


	10. Chapter 10 The Spiritual Stone of Water

**Chapter 10 **

"**The Spiritual Stone of Water"**

After a very late night of working for the third time, Arlimand, Link, and I all got up as soon as we could. My muscles were sore from showing off to the customers who enjoyed watching me climb up and down walls to grab their merchandise. My knuckles hurt from breaking Mr. Drooly's face, but that was a minor irritant in comparison to the ache in my shoulders and hips.

"Man, I **hurt**!" I said, stretching from my place on the floor; I must've fallen off the chair I'd been sleeping on.

"And I don't think the blood on my knuckles will bever/b come out, let alone the smell of alcohol on my clothes," Arli agreed from over next to the wash basin.

"I still can't get my ankle to pop," Link said, twisting his foot in strange positions, "I think I sprained it tripping over that rock."

"Or jarred it," I suggested.

My voice echoed hollowly in the large Inn room, leaving an eerie, empty feeling to our words. It was like our lips were talking, but our minds and bodies couldn't feel what we were saying. I knew mine did, but the sound of my words was so hollow... Arlimand popped his shoulders, and even that echoed in the spacious, sparingly-furnished room.

"If it's dislocated I could help, but as for sprained..." he let the sentence trail off.

"Well, let me see it, Link," I offered, sitting up.

He scooted over to where I was and rested his ankle on my lap. Even from looking at it, I could tell that it wasn't sprained.

"Oh it's not that bad. It's either stiff or slightly dislocated," I said, "Does it hurt when I do this?"

I pointed his toes as far to the direction of his leg as I could without hurting him.

"A little, no more than usual," he said.

"So it's probably stiff," I finished.

"Hello?" a voice called from just outside our room, "I'm looking for a Mr. Link, Mr. Arlimand, and Mrs. Hylia."

"In here!" Arlimand called from the basin where he was still trying to clean his hands.

A tall Zora man stepped into the room and looked around. His eyes landed on us and he bent over to speak to us.

"Are Mr. Link, Mr. Arlimand, and Mrs. Hylia here?" he asked in a patronizing tone.

"Don't patronize us," I said, "We're the ones you're looking for. Although, I'm MISS Hylia."

"But, you're children," he said shocked.

"Yes," Arli said, "Children on a mission from Princess Zelda."

"The case may be that we're children, but we've probably got one of the most important jobs in Hyrule," Link clarified, "What have you.."

"In any case, your request to see King Zora has been approved," He interrupted hurriedly.

"Good!" I said, "We'll be there."

The man, looking embarrassed, nodded and retreated from the room. We could hear his footsteps faintly as he hurried down the hallway. We then looked at each other and laughed joyously. The sound of laughter was much less hollow in this room, but it still had an eerie ring to it.

"Well, we'd better look our best for the King, shouldn't we?" I suggested, giving Link back his foot and standing up with a stretch.

"In that case, I'm going to need some new clothes," Arli said looking down at his beer-and-vomit stained tunic, "Luckily, I was upset enough about it to get this!" He held up a small pouch of rupees, enough for all three of us to get some nice looking clothing.

He got enough for me maybe to even take a shower!

"All right, Arlimand!" I cheered, "Looks like you've done some good with that talent!"

Link stood and nodded, "Though I don't really approve of it, good job."

Arli gave a light roll of his eyes and laughed, "Yeah, I'll apologize as soon as his hangover is gone, but seeing how much he drank, that could be like, a week."

"Sounds like he drank like a fish," I joked.

"Worse, more like a humanoid alcoholic whale!" He chuckled.

I let out a low whistle and smiled.

"Well," Link began, "before we go we ought to tell our new friend."

"I think I should shower," I said, "Before anything else."

"What are your sizes and preferred color? I'll grab the clothes," Arli said.

"I'm a size ten in children's," I said, "and my favorite color is blue. Anything with sleeves would be nice. Maybe some leggings. I can live with my boots."

"I'm the same size, and the only color I've ever worn is green," Link said, "I'm going to go tell our new friend."

Link and Arli left, and I went to take a well deserved shower. Too bad they didn't have hot water to bathe in... The shower room was down the hall and to the left. I almost walked into the men's bath-room but noticed a sign that said, in clear Hylian, 'men only'. Well, at least they wrote bath signs in Hylian.

I hoisted the bucket up to the hook it stood on, and slid the bottom out so I could drench myself in the water. It was cold, and goosebumps appeared on my arms and legs. I was surprised to see how tan I'd gotten in the short time Link and I had traveled. I was even more surprised to see that I didn't have any hair on my legs at all, and a small burn near my navel. I wondered where that came from a moment before the bucket ran out of water. I closed the bottom and ran it through the stream again.

Once my shower was finished, I got back into my dirty clothes and undergarments and walked out of the bath-room with my hair still wet. Arli and Link were waiting for me.

"You have a bcrap/b singing voice," Link joked, smiling.

"I got the clothes, the only problem was the leggings only came in adult sizes, sorry," Arli said pointing to a bag on the chair where I had slept.

"Brilliant," I said, "Did you get undergarments?"

"Yeah, thought about it just before I left, I just guessed same size, they're in there."

"Awesome, I'm going to go get changed, okay?" I said, rooting through the bag until I found my clothes, "These look great."

"Good, we'll go wait for you in the lobby," Arli replied leaving the room with Link right behind him, "Don't forget to grab the bag, it may be useful later."

"Got it," I said, taking the whole thing into the shower room with me, I figured I might as well rinse myself off after putting my dirty old clothes back on.

The three-quarters sleeved tunic was brilliant. It was a deep shade of blue with diamond patterns sewn into the hems and seams. It was made of a soft fabric that felt just as sturdy as leather.

After I changed, I found Link and Arli, standing in the lobby, talking to the Zora that "hired" us.

"Aah, here's Hylia," He said, "So I guess you three'll be going?"

"Yes sir," Arlimand replied politely, "I'm sorry to leave you to this alone, but we have to continue our journey."

"It's all right, I've been managing this shop alone for twelve years. I'll be retiring soon so it shouldn't be too hard to take care of things on my own," The shop owner confided.

"We'll be back, we promise," Said Link, "Maybe even before you retire!"

"I wouldn't put it past us to make it in time," I said, "I swear we'll all be late to our own funerals. We need to get going to see King Zora."

Arli laughed at this and mumbled something about that only being if we were lucky, which so far, we weren't doing too bad, and then something about it being better than being early to our funeral.

"Come on," I said to Link and Arli, "We should go. Thank you for letting us work for our rooms," I said to the kindly Zora.

"It's not a problem," he replied, "come back and work sometime if you need to make some money later." he said then handed a small bag to Arli and said "Take this, consider it a gift for your quest," he leaned closer before he spoke the next sentence, "Get the spiritual stone, and take Ganondorf down." He then stood up and turned to a Zora who had just stepped up to the counter.

This was the first thing that actually shut me up. In fact, it even shut Navi up. How did he know? Link, Arli, and I all stood silently, staring at the old Zora who knew our quest.

He looked at us and said one last thing, "get going, or you'll be late for your audience with King Zora, then you will have an even longer wait." He tapped the side of his pale, scaly nose, and we knew.

"Do you think Zoras have a Santa Clause?" I finally asked halfway to King Zora's cambers.

"A what?" Link replied, confused.

"Maybe, but what makes you ask that?" Arli said.

"Did you see the way he tapped the side of his nose and winked? Isn't that just like the tales of Old Saint Nick?"

"Who?" Link asked again.

"Ah, yes the Jolly Old Elf, now that you mention it, it kind of does, but why would he work at the Zora's Inn?" Arli replied.

Link looked at us with a mixture of amusement and confusion on his face.

"Don't the Kokiri have Christmas?" I asked to Link's confused stare, "Besides, you know that Inn has a giftshop, right? So..."

"I don't know if they did," Link interrupted, "I wasn't exactly popular with them."

"Did you ever get presents somewhere in the middle of winter?" I clarified.

"No, not really."

"Well that's why you don't know!" I sighed.

"With us it was in the season of 'Still Freaking Summer" Arli laughed, "But the tales always had him giving gifts for free, directly in peoples houses, so how does that correlate?"

I had to laugh out loud at 'still freaking summer'.

"Think about it, technically, he let us stay for three days at the Inn, itechnically/i for free. That's the best gift we ever could have been given!" I said.

"I have to agree," Link nodded.

"While that is true, what you seem to be saying is we have our own ipersonal/i Saint Nicholas," Arli said.

We stopped just short of King Zora's chambers.

"Well, what else would describe it? Is he a guardian angel? Is he a psychic? A saint? Could he be a daemon? What else would describe how he knew?"

Arlimand opened his mouth, closed it, then shrugged, "I don't know, but he knew somehow, and I'm content to leave it at that."

"Not willing to delve to far into the occult?" I asked.

"More like I don't want to appear ungrateful for what he did, somehow he knew, maybe a drunk Hyrulian castle guard, but..." He let the sentence trail off as he raised his hand to eye level and opened it revealing the pouch that the Zora gave him earlier.

"What is it, anyway?" asked Link.

"I'm not sure," Arlimand said handing it to me to open.

I pulled the drawstrings on the little pouch to find them a little more than stuck.

"What the hell?" I asked it.

"I hope you don't expect it to talk back" Arli laughed at his own joke.

Arlimand took it and untied the knot that kept it from opening.

"I knew that," I said as he handed it back.

I opened the pouch to find a large silver rupee, which was worth just over 100 rupees, a small note of encouragement, and a small bottle of something pink with wings.

Arli looked up to see someone at the entrance to the chamber. He stepped up to him and spoke.

"I am Arlimand, this is Link, and Hylia," he pointed to each of us in turn, "and we are here for our audience with King Zora."

The man nodded to him and stepped to the side, "You're five minutes late," he warned slightly.

"Our apologies, we were held up at the Inn," He replied, then turning to us, "We best not keep his Majesty waiting any longer."

We followed Arlimand into the large chamber.

The chamber was large enough for a small Royal Family party to fit comfortably into, plus band, and there was a raised platform up a flight of stairs where you could gaze upon the large essence of King Zora. When I say "large", I mean "LARGE". Let's just say that he dwarfed a lot of the drunks in Hyrule Castle Town. You know the ones, the fat, lazy, smelly ones that stop conversations when they step into a room. Yeah, and he was fat, I doubt he ever stood, and he smelled like fish. Oh, wait.

'_Hylia...'_ I heard Link mentally warn.

_Be careful what you say..._

"What have you come here for?" King Zora asked.

"We need the Spiritual Stone of Water," I said, "Can we have it?"

Well, that was one way of putting it I suppose. I sounded more like I'd asked for a toy, or maybe a glass of water. I felt like an idiot. The Spiritual Stone of Water, aka Zora's Sapphire, was a treasure of the Zora Royalty, not something to just be given away arbitrarily.

'_No kidding?'_ Arli's voice sounded, _'Do you want me to do the talking?'_

_'That might be better I think,'_ I said in my mind.

Arli nodded, thought for a moment and then began.

"What my companion meant to say, I believe, is that there is a great danger threatening all of Hyrule, and The treasure the Zoras hold is needed to protect the land."

"No need to show off.." I muttered.

"She's not the most eloquent, Milord, but she means well," Link said with a bow.

'_Did I explain and express it correctly?'_ Arli asked in his mind, looking for our approval.

'_Hell, it was better than flat asking for it,'_ I thought back.

"Yes..." The King said with a thoughtful nod, "but if you want the Zora's Sapphire, save my daughter. She has disappeared after feeding lord Jabu-Jabu, our god. There is only one explanation, and that is..." He didn't finish his sentence.

He didn't have to.

'_More Royalty?'_ Arli thought.

'_Pretty much,'_ Link and I thought in oblivious-to-the-joke unison.

Beautiful, now we have some more work to do.

King Zora scooted away from his usual place on a waterfall created by a big rock in the middle of a river that created his throne. He took forever, but when he finished, there was a hole leading to the outside, where he motioned for us to go after handing us a fish.

"If you offer this to him, maybe he'll release my beautiful daughter," He sad, concern filling his voice.

"Maybe" I said, not believing at all what he said as he tossed a fish to Link.

We left the dungeon-like room and found ourselves outside after going through the passage King Zora opened up for us. What we found shocked us beyond reason.


	11. Chapter 11 Princes Ruto

**Chapter 11**

**Princess Ruto, Little Miss Bossy Bitch**

A giant wale was waiting for it's second feeding of the day.

"So this is lord Jabu-Jabu?" I asked, "I thought we were going to be seeing a more... I don't know... humanoid creature?"

"Man, are you telling me the whale **ATE** HER? Do we really have to go inside?" Arli asked beginning to look slightly ill.

I felt the blood rush from my face, "I think so... I think that's what the giant Zora said."

Link looked ill and didn't say anything. Instead, he rubbed his stitches a little.

"Link?" Navi asked.

"What?" he said, looking up a the ball of blue light.

"Are you okay?" I asked, and I think Navi turned to me.

"I think I am. My stitches hurt," He said, rubbing his head some more.

"Let me see," I said.

Link pulled his hat off and I ruffled through his hair searching for the stitches. They were a little red, but other than that they looked fine.

"Your stitches are fine. Just stop rubbing them, I think that's why they hurt," I said.

"Well, better get this over with," Arli said pulling out the fish King Zora gave us.

"Isn't there a better way to do this?" Link asked.

"Not unless you want to give a whale an emergency cesarean section with that tiny sword," I joked.

"A What?" Link replied.

Arlimand made a cutting symbol around his abdomen area.

"Oh," Was his only reply.

I thought it was a genius reply. And by genius, I meant idiotic.

"By the way, before we go in, do we have everything we might need?" Arli asked.

"I think so," I said, looking at my slightly dwindling supply of deku seeds.

"My sword's still on my back," Link said, "but I miss my shield..."

"I miss mine, too," I said comfortingly.

"My foot still hurts..." Link said, looking at his ankle.

"Let me check it," Arli said moving closer to link, he closed his eyes and felt the joint.

"Ow..." Link mumbled.

"Well, I could have been wrong..." I mused to myself.

"No, you were right," Arli said, "At the most it is slightly dislocated, lets see if it is it's dislocated to the left," He looked up at Link, "this may hurt but it should feel better afterwards."

There was a slight popping sound, and a high pitched shout of pain came out of Link. My first reaction was to help him, quickly followed by a passing urge to punch him in the face for hurting my ears. Link put his foot down, and I watched it land on a rock. Needless to say, he fell over.

"WHAT THE HELL?" he cried as he fell.

It was all I could do to not laugh. I helped him up by jerking at his arm. He swore again. I guessed that pulling on an injured man's arm was a bad idea.

"Glad to see you're getting the hang of swear words," I joked sarcastically.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Never mind, let's just **GET **the Princess,** GET **the spiritual stone, and **GET **out of here," I said, sighing and emphasizing the word 'get'.

"I agree," said Navi.

"Um, you guys?" Arli was pointing at Lord Jabu Jabu, who had apparently smelled the fish.

"What?" I yelled turning in time to see the whale open his giant maw, "Oh shit!"

The great whale began to inhale to bring its meal closer to it. The amount of force that inhalation provided, however, swept all three of us off our feet and brought us closer and closer to the monolithic creature's mouth.

"Just the fish!" Link yelled at the aquatic mammal as we flew through the air, "_JUST THE FISH_!"

The only thing I could bring my body to do was scream.

"Hylia," A voice called through the thick black that was gathered around my eyes, "HYLIA," It called again, a little more forcefully, "**HYLIA!**"The voice yelled drawing me from my thoughts.

"Huh?" I called to the voice, in reproachful shock.

"All right, good, you're awake, are you injured?" I now recognized the voice as that of Arlimand.

"I don't know. I can't feel my left hand..." I said.

"Can you stand? I'd come to you, but I don't want to trip on you. Are you laying on it?" He asked from a small distance away as far as my hearing could tell me, "Link?" He called now trying to locate the final member of our group.

"I'm here," I heard him rasp from a further distance, "I landed on my ankle and I can't see."

"None of us can see, moron!" I called, "It's dark in here."

Arli chuckled, "What is it with you? You seem to have a personal vendetta against that ankle. Can you stand? You two follow my voice, I am beginning to be able to see a little but it's hard, I can see enough that when you get close to me I can grab you."

"I don't want to be grabbed," I moaned, attempting to stand, but falling on my butt, "My legs don't want to stand."

"I can," Link said shakily, "I don't think I broke it."

"It's probably lapsed into it's dislocated position. If you can get to me, I can try to fix it again," Arli called back.

I heard Link give an audible whimper.

"Well, if someone can find me, can they help me up? I think I hurt my leg."

"Wait!" Arli said "Navi? Can you act as a light?"

"Do I have to? It's demeaning!" I heard her call from Link's direction.

Great, that faerie was here, too. I'd been hoping she'd gotten left out.

"Demeaning or not, it gives us a better chance of surviving this thing, plus if Link's ankle is hurt it will make it worse if he trips, as far as Hylia, if she can't come to us it will help if we can see her." Arli replied.

I sat, waiting for Navi to quit her griping about being used as a lantern, searching around the room. I heard Arli's footsteps somewhere not too far off, and Link's limping steps somewhere a little further behind me. It was dark, and gave me an eerie feeling, as if of a reminder of a different time, or maybe an experience in my past. I found myself more frightened then I should have been. I proceeded looking around some more, searching for Navi.

Dark...dark...dark...FREAKING BLUE LIGHT IN MY FACE!

"GAAH!" I shrieked and fell over onto my back.

Navi let loose with a small giggle.

"I hate you, Navi," I said, lying down and extending my middle finger.

"That's our Skulltulla," Arli said.

"What?" Navi asked innocently

"You did that on purpose," I said, holding my arm over my blinded eyes.

"No I didn't," Navi denied, flying towards Link, "She's over here," she told him.

_'I didn't think I would ever be glad to see that faerie,'_ Arli's voice rang in my head.

'_In all honesty, I didn't think so, either,' _ I thought back.

'_Be nice, you guys,'_ Link's voice chimed in.

'_What if we don't want to be nice?'_ I mentally taunted.

Link opened his mouth as he stepped up to me and squatted down to my level to help me up when we all perked our ears in the direction of a shrill scream coming from somewhere in the chamber we were in.

"Anyone else get the sudden urge to go that way?" Arli asked pointing away from the origin of the scream.

"Yup," Said Link.

"Sure did," I added, "Help me up."

Arli laughed and grabbed my left hand and lifted me onto my feet.

"I still can't feel that hand," I said.

"I think we have bigger problems," Navi said.

"Help me!" came the cry again, as if on cue.

In the distance, I caught a glimpse of a free moving _something_ spinning rapidly in the direction of a smaller _something_,in the form of a young lady with a BIG head.. My eyes adjusted more and I could see the thing that was spinning, and the young lady. The spinning thing was an Amoeba, "Barrinade" it was called. The young lady was a Zora, she was no more than ten, our age. She was cowering in a nook of the wales gut. That thought made me repress a small shudder.

"Link! Hylia! Arlimand!" yelled Navi, "That must be the Princess of the Zoras, Ruto!"

As Navi said this, the young lady looked our way as if hearing her name. As she did, no doubt remained in my mind, this was the Princess Ruto; She looked like a skinny, effeminate version of her father.

"Don't worry, Princess" I called, "We'll help you!"

Link nudged me,_ 'Are you crazy?'_

_'What?'_ I thought back,_ We've got to save her!'_

_'Can't you see Barrinade? It's bigger than King Zora himself!'_

'_We have to try, how else are we going to get the gir-er the spiritual stone.'_ Arli replied, then added a quick _'Watch out!'_

During our debate the amoeba managed to come so close to us, it was ruffling our outfits.

We had to duck some of the Bari that Barrinade threw at us. We weren't quite fast enough, and Link yelled a particularly bad word and we were knocked over like dominoes, hit by one of the projectile jelly fish coming off the amoeba, Arlimand knocked a different direction by another coming at him from the side. Gasping in pain, Link landed on me, and I heard the young lady gasp and shriek.

_'Oh, not again,'_ I thought, more out of chagrin than panic or anger, _'Link, get off me, you accident-prone fatass.'_

'_Well, excuse me, Princess,' _He thought back.

_'Hylia! Jellyfish, eight o'clock!' _Arli's thought entered my mind.

"LOOK OUT!" I yelled at Link, and pushed him over, rolling both of us out of the way.

I ended up on top of Link, at which point I saw his eyes roll back in his head as he lost consciousness.

"Oh shit!" I gasped.

'_Let me guess, Link's unconscious?'_ Arlis voice rang with exasperation.

'_Of course, the Bari must have hit his headwound,'_ I thought back, pushing Link's unconscious body somewhere where he wouldn't get more hurt.

'_Can you toss me his sword? It'll be better than nothing. Two more at eight and three,' _Arli's voice came back.

I stood and kicked the two Bari to other directions, both electrocuting me so badly that I let out with a sound not unlike a large ape punching itself in the chest. I hucked Link's sword in the direction I heard Arli's voice come from.

'_Thanks, are you alright? I think it's safe to say that will be a good move to avoid in the future.'_ Arli's voice flowed in my mind.

"No kidding," I called out loud.

Arli chuckled, "How close to that Amoeba can you get? I won't be able to reach it anytime soon, will your slingshot do any damage?" He shouted.

"No!" Called Ruto, "The only thing that'll hurt it is this!" and she threw something at me that hit me in the face.

"Next time, aim to the side please, we don't need her vision fuzzy from a blow of friendly fire," Arli called to Ruto, then as an afterthought, added, another "Please."

"I'm sorry," she mumbled as I picked up the boomerang at my feet.

"Really? A boomerang? Okay..." I said.

I tossed the curved piece of wood at the large amoeba coming back at me, and much to my surprise, it stopped in place.

"Wow, impressive!" Arli called as he ran in and hacked at the Amoeba creature with the Kokiri sword until it was little more than a slimy pile of... something.

Link had woken up promptly after Barrinade let loose with its deafening 'death rattle'.

"So, anyone know how to get out of here?" Arli asked me after Ruto, Link, Arli, and I had gathered back in the center of the chamber.

"You were so cool!" Ruto was telling Link, "I never saw anyone fight like that!"

Link just stared at her.

_'What is she talking about? I was out! I didn't fight!'_ I heard him protest.

'_Of course, we do all the work, he gets all the thanks,'_ Arli complained.

_'I think she saw us fight,'_ I thought back, _'And mistook one of us for Accident.'_

'_No offense, but it was probably you, even in the dark I think it would take some doing to mistake me for Link,'_ Arli replied.

_'We don't look that much the same, do we?'_ Came his question, strained over his blushing.

_'Oh hell no!' _This embarrassed me so much I felt myself blushing.

'_On another subject, who is going to ask Ruto for the Zora's Saphire?'_ Arli's thoughts broke the pause.

"Uhh, Princess?" I hesitated, "Your father promised that if we saved you..."

"He asked you to save me?" she interrupted.

"Yes," Arli replied, "and in return he said we could receive the Spiritual Stone of Water," Arli said sheepishly.

"Hmph!" she scoffed, "I don't think so."

"Listen, kid," I said, "We need that blasted thing."

'_Hold it,'_ Arli's voice rang calmly in my mind, _'let me, you are more likely to rip her head off to get it than convince her.' _

"Excuse me, Princess Ruto? is it? We are on an important mission, and the three Spiritual Stones are needed to save not just the Castle Towne, but, all of Hyrule. I assume, you will one day be queen of this people, but how do you become queen of a people who no longer exist? If the man we are after has his way, then you will be more of a slave than I was to the Gerudo people, you will be no better than those who you hope to one day rule," Arli reasoned.

This gave the little brat reason to pause. Too bad she didn't.

"Fine, take the Stone and let's leave," She said, throwing it at me.

I found myself surprised that the newest stone we had didn't stick into my eye where it hit. It was technically three sapphires around a triangle held in place by three sharp semi-circles.

"Is there a reason you're upset? You can talk to us, we just saved you, and we didn't mean to insult you in any way," Arli said, looking pointedly at me.

"Whaaaat?" I wanted to know.

"It's not you. It's my father. He's forcing me to get married..." She explained.

"Ah, to Mr. Drooly," Arli slipped.

"What the hell?" I asked, "The drooly jackwad? How in the..."

"Yes, I suppose that's a good name for my suitor," Ruto interrupted, "My father says that he's the most handsome Zora man for his beautiful daughter. I'm always just 'his beautiful daughter this,' and 'his beautiful daughter that'! He never thinks about _my _feelings!"

'_I think it runs in the family,' _I thought to 'Accident' and Arli.

'_Be nice, the suitor thing, is it a royalty deal? or just Zora? Or maybe just Zora Royalty?' _Arli asked curiously.

'_It's a royalty thing,'_ I explained.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Arli asked.

"No..." she said, "but you're so sweet."

She proceeded to fawn over Link again.

"If you're sure... we should probably get going. Now, does anyone have spices of any kind?" Arli grinned.

"What in all the eight Hells was that about?" I asked, nudging Arli, as we left Zora's domain, not that I really cared.

"What do you mean?" Arli replied, confused.

"I mean all that fuss an commotion over Link. We did all the freaking work."

"I'm not sure, but she was pretty," Arli replied looking over at me, then amended, "For a Zora."

"Oooh, Accident, check this out, Arli's got a thing for Ruto!" I teased.

"Stop calling me that," Link said, "And what do you mean 'a thing' for Ruto?"

"Nothing!" Arli said quickly, "Hey anyone else have a bad feeling in the pit of their stomach?"

"Yeah, it's probably nothing," I said, trying to shake it off.

But the feeling that stuck with me the most was the ever familiar feeling of dread. I had the feeling of dread I got when I first left my mother and father. I feared for them, as well as me. I could see that Link also had that feeling, because he kept looking at me anxiously as we proceeded to run. We hurried down the ramp and towards the towering Castle that lay on the horizon. I didn't even feel tired as I pounded my feet faster to attempt to keep up with Accident-Link and Arli. I knew we had to get to the castle towne, and I knew we had to get there yesterday. I saw the castle getting closer and put on more speed. I soon found myself running ahead of Accident and Arli. Eventually, even though it was still at least a mile away, I saw that castle gates. It was the middle of the day, and the gates were closed. As I drew nearer, I noticed that they were opening.

I faltered as I heard the sound of hoofbeats on the cobblestone path. A white horse was coming full speed at us, and we got out of the way just in time. On the back of the horse, Impa was carrying my cousin. We stared after them until they were gone into the false horizon, and more hoofbeats caused us to turn around. There was a beautiful black mare with a man in black armor astride it. We jumped at the sight of him.

"BLAST!" he yelled, making us jump once again, "I've lost them."

Link and I looked at each other, then looked at Arlimand, anxiety causing all of us to look lost. We turned to him, and I recognized him instantly. The suddenness of Ganondorf's appearance made me step back a little. Link did the same. Arli, probably out of something picked up living with the gerudo, kneeled on the ground.

"You Three!" he bellowed at us, "did you see a white horse go past here?"

None of us spoke, we were too terrified to say anything. Link nudged me and looked at me.

_'We've got to protect Impa and Zelda. We can't let Ganondorf get them!'_

I agreed, and we pulled out weapons from our backpacks. Arlimand looked at us, looked at himself, and pulled himself upright. He put his arms out in a pose that said easily said: 'do-not-try-to-do-what-you're-trying-to do'.

Link pulled out his sword, and I pulled out my boomerang and slingshot. Just as I was ready to fire on Ganondorf, I had to stop and stare incredulously. He was laughing.

"Do you really think you can protect them?" He laughed.

Arlimand didn't speak, in fact, none of us spoke, but by the set of his jaw, he was content to try, whether he would fail or not. Link and I were still terrified, but we lowered our weapons and glared at him.

He stopped laughing and held up his left hand.

"I am Ganondorf, King of the Gerudos, and soon, I will rule the world!"

With that, he let a ball of light that had just formed in his hand fly out; it split into two and hit Link and me just hard enough for us to fall on our asses and watch Ganondorf ride away on his black mare. Arlimand shouted, Link got up first, and helped me to my feet. Navi, shivering, let herself out of Link's hat. She was so terrified that she didn't speak. Had this been a better time, I think I would have been grateful, but my cousin was in huge trouble, and my parents, well, I had a sneaking suspicion were no longer around.

As Ganondorf left, the clouds that I had just notice surrounding Hyrule dissipated, and the sun shone. It hurt my eyes, and did nothing for my fear. I walked over to the side of the moat to look at myself and to try to relax. Yep, it'd been true, I had no figure, and my hair was flat and frizzy. No wonder Ruto thought I was Link. As I was examining my tired looking blue eyes, something caught my attention. It, too, was blue, but it was deeper than my eyes. It was pretty, and it was oddly shaped. My fear melted away as I realized what it was.

"Hey Accident-Prone, Arli," I said, "Look at this."

They walked over, and looked where I was pointing.

"What is it?" Arlimand asked.

"Is it..." Link began.

I interrupted him by jumping in the moat to retrieve it. It was, after all, the Hylian family treasure. As I reached for the blasted thing, I found floating on the surface a difficult task. Somehow, I managed before I was swept back to shore on the other side of the castle by the strong current. Accident-Prone and Arli ran with me, asking me what it was, but I found it difficult to answer, with getting water in my mouth the whole time. I swam from the side of the Castle I'd been pushed against and got to the shore.

"It's the Royal Family's greatest treasure," I said, handing the ocarina to Link, "The Ocarina of Time."

I doubt he'd heard me though, because he'd just stared at me, a blank expression on his face. He didn't even reply when Navi spoke to him. Instead, he put the Ocarina to his lips and played a melody I knew from sometime long ago. When the song finished, he gave me a 'what the hell was that all about' look.

"Hey, don't give me that look. You are the one who played the Ocarina, not me," I said, "besides, I think my cousin communicated with you through her telepathy."

He simply nodded.

"You're telling me she can do that too?"Arli asked, "Great a mind full of her" he finished sarcastically.

"Did she say anything?" I asked, shuffling my feet and feeling this moment was a little too awkward.

"She said to go to the Temple of Light, play the song of Time, and set the Spiritual Stones in the Altar of Time," He replied, the look on his face indicating awkwardness.

As the sun started to go down, we ran into the Towne. I put my hair back into a pony tail just as the gate closed behind us, and one of the guards told us we'd made it just in time. We didn't notice him very well because we were running to the Temple of Light. The castle town isn't that big, but it seemed huge at that point, then and there, when we knew we had only little time to get the spiritual stones in place.

"Which way now?" whispered Link as we reached the middle of the Towne.

"That way," I whispered back, pointing to a large cathedral.

Link bent over to catch his breath, letting the wary Arlimand catch up, and my ears perked to a sickening pop. I had Link take his hat off, to let me examine his head. Where his head wound was, one of the stitches had come out from the stress. I'd had to use Link's own sword to get them out. Luckily, he was a quick healer, so it didn't bleed at all. Luckily for me, that is; I wasn't too interested in throwing up in the middle of Towne.

"Awh shit," I whispered, pulling out the stitches.

"Awh shit? What 'Awh shit'?" Accident-Prone nearly yelped.

Arli chuckled, "Always disconcerting when your doctor says 'shit' isn't it?"

"It's nothing," I told them, "I just hate pulling out things from skin, that's all."

" At least you're not on the receiving end of this," he replied, "This is one of the worst feelings in the world."

I didn't tell him about the stitches I'd gotten when I'd shut my fingers in the door of my house. I knew what it was like, and it wasn't an enjoyable feeling. It was similar to taking out a splinter of wood, but it takes longer, and feels... I dunno, softer. Not fun, being clumsy. And, finally, I wasn't the truly clumsy one of the group. Once I'd taken the last of the stitches out, we resumed walking, Arlimand chuckling as Accident-Prone rubbed his head where the stitches had been. It was late when we finally reached the temple, and a full moon had fully risen to its apex in the sky. Something startled me as I looked around the familiar landscape.

"Eep!" I shrieked, as I felt something elongated and thick touch my butt, causing Arli to jump and turn, hands raised for a fight with whatever creature was attacking.

"What?" Link asked, turning around so fast he fell over.

"Nothing," I said, pushing the stray away, "Just a dog."

Accident-Prone and Arli found this _very funny_, and Accident was holding on to the banister as we walked up the steps into the temple, and Arlimand was leaning on Accident. I found myself mumbling gibberish about how they kept making fun of my misfortune, and swearing intermittently through the gibberish. Navi had an uncanny ability to know when I was about to swear, because she'd always get ready to whack me before I swore, and she would whack me in the back of the head promptly after. Not that I cared, I was too livid with my companions. After Arlimand finished laughing, he tensed up, seemingly at nothing, and balled his giant hands into fists at either side. Every once in a while, he'd remind Link to breathe between bouts of laughter, because we didn't need the hero of the group to die early of laughter.

We soon found ourselves inside the Temple of Time. I looked to the tiled black and white floor, the grey wall, and the pedestal near the front that was frequently used by the Father of the Church of Hyrule to give sermons. I observed all of it and memories came flooding into my mind of sitting next to my mother, twiddling my thumbs and playing with my feet. A rush of sadness came over me as Link, Arlimand and I all looked to the pedestal where the Triforce symbol rested. On the other side of said pedestal, I saw the stairs that lead to a stone door that children often would knock on to see if it would open for them. I remembered doing so myself.

Link was wheezing with laughter as we continued on past the pews. He even stopped a couple of times to bend over to hold his ribs. I dragged him to the altar an he immediately stopped laughing as I reached into his backpack.

"What are you doing?" he asked me, standing up.

"Getting your Kokiri's Emerald," I replied.

He shook back and fourth and I fell on my ass. He laughed, Arlimand chuckled, but was far too busy looking around the temple. Accident told me he could do it himself, and reached into his bag and got the Spiritual Stone. I'd gotten the Spiritual Stone of Water, and threw it on the altar. I searched in my own backpack for the Goron's Ruby, but it wasn't there. For some reason, it made me uncomfortable, though I_ knew_ Arli had it. That was the only excuse.

"Arlimand..." I said to get his attention.

"Yeah?" he said turning from the pedestal where he had already placed it, "Don't worry I only took it just barely."

"All right then," I said.

Accident-Prone Link then placed his Kokiri's Emerald on the pedestal and put the ocarina to his lips.

"Wait a sec," I said, "I have a really bad feeling. I need to find out about my family!"

"I have the same, but I was ready to pass mine off as an after-effect of meeting Ganondorf" Arli said.

He paused, then he nodded, putting the instrument away. We tried to get out the Stones, but couldn't, so we left them and left the temple. Turning east, we found a shortcut to the castle.

We arrived to find a destroyed and body-logged battle field. Hardly a single soldier could be told apart due to the blood they lay in and the carnage in the area. Arlimand looked pale, as if he was about to pass out.

"What hell happened here?" I cried to no on in particular.

A wounded soldier who I hadn't noticed before coughed and caught my attention. His shoulder was stained crimson in his own blood. He looked up at me, and recognition played games with his features.

"Hylia..." he coughed,"Your parents...your Uncle...they're...they're..." he coughed and wheezed some more, "they're dead, I'm sorry... Ganondorf...killed..." and just as he was going to finish his sentence, he couldn't hold on, and slumped over, dead.

It took me a while to understand what he'd said. His breath had come in short, coughing gasps, making his speech almost incomprehensible. When I'd managed to understand what he'd said, I broke down in tears.

"I'm sorry Hylia, I'm not very good at comforting people, but, I'm sorry" Arli put his arm around my shoulders, when I tensed, he said "We b will/b get him back for this, believe me."

Link had to help Arlimand half-drag, half-carry my sobbing ass back to the temple. None of us spoke and I got to my feet when we reached the steps. None of us really thought, either. We just walked in complete, tortured, stunned silence. We reached the pedestal of time, and again Arli and Link dragged me. Link played the Song of Time, and I watched the Triforce symbol above the Door of Time shine and the door open up. As I sobbed harder, covering my face in my hands, I heard Navi shout something I couldn't fully understand. I looked up to see what she had said, and was stunned by what I saw.

In the middle of a room that the door had opened to was a pedestal, yet again, but this time, something was protruding from it. Again, Link and Arli had to drag me, but this time I was on my feet in complete shock. What I saw was a sword, a beautiful, glistening, perfectly crafted sword. It took my breath away, such beautiful craftsmanship, but I didn't forget the agony I was in. I dragged myself to the sword to get a better look to see if it was what my mother had told me about. What I saw, when I examined it, shocked reminded me of my mother, and I broke down crying again. Arlimand and Link had to come to my rescue again. I felt so pathetic, getting all broken up about a sword. But, I supposed, grief can do that to a person.

"What is it?" Link asked.

"It's the..." I was about to say.

"If I'm, right, I think this might be... YES! Link! Hylia! Arlimand! This is the legendary blade! THE MASTER SWORD!" Navi interrupted happily.

This only made me more upset. That little bitch had no concern for my feelings, and I knew my mother would be so proud to see me here, working with someone who found the Master Sword.

I wailed as Link pulled the sword out of its pedestal. I'm unsure what moved him to do such a thing, but he did, none the less. Again, just like in a distant memory, came the white light, and it faded to black. If I hadn't been crying over the loss of my parents, I'm sure I would've been terrified. A figure appeared in the darkness, but I didn't care. I heard what he said, and I knew the meaning behind it, but I was so depressed, so paralyzed inside as well as out, that I didn't do anything but wallow in self pity and hatred for the monster who stood before me, telling us how good a job we did in leading him to the sacred realm.

When the blackness finally, fully over took me, with the white light, my sorrow dissipated. All that was left in my soul was tired apathy.


End file.
